On the eve of signing day, Buffalo gained a program-changing verbal commitment from backstroker, Mallory Buha. Buha is from Novi, Michigan and trains under Rich Bennetts with the Farmington Family YMCA Stingrays. Buha told us, “I’m very excited to be a part of a team where everyone matters. The team really supports everyone and the support from the school that student-athletes are given is incredible!”
Backstroke is currently an area of weakness for the Bulls. With best times of 55.11 in the 100 backstroke and 2:00.70 in the 200 backstroke, Buha will be a huge contributor to the team as a freshman. She is currently only .02 off of the NCAA “B” cut time in the 100 backstroke and has already been faster than the current school record time of 55.26.
She will make a major impact at the conference level with her individual swims as well as with her contributions to the medley relays. With her times from last season, she would have finished 5th in the 100 backstroke and 8th in the 200 backstroke at the Mid-Atlantic Conference Championships. Swapping her time with the lead-off leg of Buffalo’s 400 medley relay would have bumped them from 7th to 4th.
Her third event, the 200 IM, is not as strong as her backstrokes at 2:07.65, but it has the potential to be. Fine tuning her breaststroke and freestyle will help improve her third event into another strength for the Bulls. With two years before her first appearance at the MAC Championships, it will be interesting to see if the coaches will focus on developing the back half of her IM or if they will choose to utilize her 100 butterfly (57.98).
Mallory has two older swimmers that have also been through the recruiting process. Her oldest sister, Madalyn, swam for Oakland University and her other sister, Maranda, currently swims for IUPUI.
Woohoo!! Go Mallory!! 😀
From the home of the legendary “Indy 500” the Novi which many famous drivers drove with an interesting history. The town water tower has a picture of it painted on it.
Congratulations UB. Not only did you get a commitment from a top backstrokers but an even better person. Can’t wait to see how Mallory performs in college. Looking to see the coaching staff can take her. NCAA her she comes.