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Bennett, Faafiti earn February Bison of the Month honors
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Gallaudet University Athletics Department announced the two recipients of the Bison of the Month recently for the month of February. The honorees are from men's swimming, sophomore Brian Bennett (Colorado Springs, Colo.), and from women's basketball, junior center Easter Faafiti (Pittsburg, Calif.).
Bennett joined the Gallaudet men’s swimming program during the second half of the season, the start of the spring semester, and made an immediate impact for the Buff and Blue. The sophomore transfer from University of Northern Colorado, set five Gallaudet records during the three-day Capital Athletic Conference swimming championships held at St. Mary’s (Md.) College from February 12-14. He started the championships off with a new record in the 500-yard freestyle (4:57.19). Two more records fell on the second day as Bennett finished 11th overall in the 200-yard freestyle with a new program record of 1:49.06. The new time was two seconds faster then his previous record he set against Hood College back on January 24. The second record set that day came with the 800-yard freestyle relay team where Bennett swam the anchor leg. The Bison finished with a new record time of 7:55.34. On the final day of the championships, Bennett set two GU records in one event. The sophomore swam in the 1,650-yard freestyle and set a program record with a time of 17:05.39. During the race he set the program record in the 1,000-yard freestyle (10:18.38) to erase Raymond Clark's name from the record book, in both marks. Gallaudet finished sixth overall at the CAC championships.
Faafiti earns her second Bison of the Month honor this year, the other was in December, as she averaged 20.8 points per game and 10.8 rebounds per game during the month of February in nine games. The junior center helped the Bison clinch the sixth-seed in the Capital Athletic Conference tournament as GU made its first appearance in the postseason since 2006-07. Gallaudet finished the season with a 14-12 record, the best season in a decade for the Bison. She earned her fourth CAC Player of the Week award on February 22. In five of the nine games she recorded double-doubles. She scored a season-high 34 points against York (Pa.) College on February 15 and grabbed a season-high 21 rebounds against Wesley College on February 23 in the CAC tournament first round game where she also scored 22 points. Recently, she was named the CAC Player of the Year and selected to the All-CAC first team. Faafiti, a junior-college transfer from Pasadena City College, led the CAC in scoring (19.1 points per game), rebounding (11.1 per game), field goal percentage (.597), offensive rebounds (5.1 per game) and was second in steals (3.3 per game) and fourth in defensive rebounds (6.0). Nationally, Faafiti was ranked in several categories among all NCAA Division III women's basketball programs including; field goal percentage (10th overall), scoring (27th), rebounding (30th) and steals (39th).
The March Bison of the Month will be announced in early April.
2009-10 Bison of the Month
