Courtesy: Ball State Athletics
Women’s Recap
MUNCIE, Ind. – – No meet since November, no problem for the Ball State women’s swimming program which picked up right where it left off with a 265.5-80.5 victory over Bellarmine Saturday afternoon at the Lewellen Aquatic Center.
“We were really excited with the progress we saw today,” head coach J. Agnew said after the meet. “I’d say 85 percent of the swims were better than when we raced in November. The team’s been really consistent in their training and it showed today. They were able to swim really strong dual meet times, and we are excited about what we saw.”
In improving to 3-0 on the year, the Cardinals picked up wins in 12 of the 14 swimming events against the Knights who were opening their 2020-21 campaign. The win was a fitting tribute to seniors Caitlin Locante, Cailin Merck, Kayla Molnar and Audrey Schank who were honored following the meet.
“I can’t say enough about our seniors, I love these guys,” Agnew said. “The men, the women, they’ve just changed the culture. They’ve been passionate about what they bring to competition. They show up every day ready to work, they are pretty fearless and they make it fun.”
The biggest winner of the day was freshman Marcella Ribeiro who picked up a pair of individual wins in her Ball State debut. The Minas Ferais, Brazil, native was unable to join the team until late December due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, but made her presence felt in her first collegiate meet by winning both the 200 (1:53.56) and 500 (5:04.49) freestyle events.
Sophomore Apsara Sakbun followed her MAC Swimmer of the Week performance from opening weekend with two more wins, claiming top honors in both the 50 (24.41) and 100 (52.52) freestyle sprints. The effort gives her six individual victories on the year.
Rounding out Ball State’s top performers against Bellarmine was sophomore Phoebe Rensink who earned wins in the 200 butterfly (2:07.62) and 200 IM (2:09.87). She also swam the third leg of the winning 200 medley relay which opened the meet with a time of 1:47.36 to help account for a team-high three event wins.
Also picking up individual wins for Ball State were junior Katie Walker (1000 freestyle; 10:38.92), sophomore Shelby Crist (100 backstroke; 57.81), junior Alex Bader (100 breaststroke; 1:04.81), freshman Sophia Kuehn (200 backstroke; 2:08.05) and freshman Laura Wright (200 breaststroke; 2:23.31).
“Coming out of COVID summer, that November meet was really tough on them,” Agnew said. “Today, they looked like they could finish races. Across the board, I just felt like we were finishing better. Our 200 frees made a good statement for us. That’s an event that’s been a struggle for us the last couple years and Marcella coming in and getting her first race win as a Cardinal was good. But the other two swimmers in the race were really strong 1:56s as freshmen and we’re excited about that.”
The Ball State women’s swimming and diving team is scheduled to return to action on Friday, Feb 12, when it travels to Miami.
Men’s Recap
MUNCIE, Ind. – – Despite not competing in over two months, the Ball State men’s swimming program did not miss a beat Saturday afternoon in a 165-95 victory over Bellarmine at the Lewellen Aquatic Center.
“We were really excited with the progress we saw today,” head coach J. Agnew said after the meet. “I’d say 85 percent of the swims were better than when we raced in November. The team’s been really consistent in their training and it showed today. They were able to swim really strong dual meet times, and we are excited about what we saw.”
In improving to 2-0 on the year, the Cardinals picked up wins in nine of the 14 swimming events against the Knights who were opening their 2020-21 campaign. The win was also a fitting tribute to seniors Ryan Jackowiak, Davis Meyn and Drew Weeks who were honored before the start of the meet.
“I can’t say enough about our seniors, I love these guys,” Agnew said. “The men, the women, they’ve just changed the culture. They’ve been passionate about what they bring to competition. They show up every day ready to work, they are pretty fearless and they make it fun.”
The Cardinals started the day with a dominating win in the 200 medley relay as sophomore Aiden Maurer, freshman Joey Garberick, sophomore Bryce Handshoe and sophomore Owen Chaye combined for a winning time of 1:35.23.
That was just the start for Maurer, Garberick and Chaye who would go on to pick up two individual wins each to lead a strong Ball State effort on the day.
Maurer would go on to win both the 100 backstroke (53.57) and the 500 freestyle (4:50.86) for his first two individual wins of the season.
Garberick led the Cardinals to the wall in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 57.93, just off his pool record time of 56.53 set opening weekend. His second win came in the 200 IM with a clocking of 1:56.65. With his three individual wins opening weekend, Garberick currently leads the Cardinals with five individual event victories on the year.
Chaye took top billing in both freestyle sprint events, clocking in at 21.54 in the 50 and 46.85 in the 100.
Junior Ryan Short also picked up an individual win, clocking in at 10:01.75 to finish first in the meet’s longest event, the 1000 freestyle.
Short also ended the day by swimming the second leg for the first-place 400 freestyle relay (3:13.02).
“For our guys, it’s really neat to see what’s going on,” Agnew said. “We’re developing a lot of new events, seeing things we haven’t seen before and they’re building confidence, which is the biggest thing. They are confident they can finish races, they can take them out. We didn’t have a lot of speed today, but we’ve seen it in the training and when we get back to a normal schedule, I think we are going to be ready to pop these next few weeks.”
The Ball State men’s swimming and diving team returns to action Jan. 31, when it competes in the Butler Invite which will be held at Fishers High School.
Courtesy: Bellarmine Athletics
MUNCIE, Ind. — The Bellarmine University swimming teams made their Division I debuts Saturday at Ball State in duals against the Cardinals.
Bellarmine’s men won five events while the women captured two. Ball State claimed a 165-96 victory on the men’s side and 165.5-80.5 win in the women’s competition.
Freshman Greyson Williams placed first in the 200 freestyle (1:46.01) for Bellarmine’s men. Also earning top honors for the Knights were junior Matthew Sims in the 200 butterfly (1:52.69), sophomore Adham Howaidy in the 200 backstroke (1:59.24), junior Daniel Sims in the 200 breaststroke (2:11.90) and sophomore Jacob Dray in the 100 butterfly (51.84).
Notching runner-up finishes were Matthew Sims (200 individual medley), Howaidy (100 backstroke), freshman Kenton Whiteley (200 backstroke) and freshman Andrew Nguyen (200 breaststroke).
Junior Rachel Walker placed first in the 100 butterfly (57.64) for Bellarmine’s women. Walker, freshman Grace Lough, junior Meghann McLaughlin and junior Avery Witcher took first in the 400 freestyle relay (3:51.75).
Swimming to runner-up finishes were McLaughlin (1000 freestyle), Witcher (500 freestyle), senior Sophia Noren (100 breaststroke) and freshman Caroline McMillin (200 individual medley).
Bellarmine will host Xavier next Saturday. The Knights will celebrate Senior Day.
