After a grueling three day marathon-like schedule of events at the Miami Invitational, relief has finally came for the women's swimming and diving team.
In all, 17 teams competed this weekend at Oxford, Ohio in what was the biggest meet of the season. Ball State finished 10th overall at the invitational with 429 points, while Michigan State won with a score of 1,406.50.
"My emphasis was on our individual performances," head coach Laura Seibold-Caudill said. "And I thought we did very well.
"It was hard to place well because almost all the other teams that we competed against had been tapering for this meet. But we got what we wanted out of this meet. Our younger swimmers now have a sense of what the Mid-American Conference Championships are going to be like."
Freshman Karla Bailey had the best overall performance for the Cards as she finished 5th in the 100-yard breaststroke finals with a time of 1:05.87. Bailey also placed 11th in the 200 yard breaststroke and 200 yard Individual Medley. Michelle Arakgi had the next highest finish placing 13th in the 200 yard butterfly.
The meet provided good experience for the Cardinal swim team as they competed against Big Ten powerhouses like Indiana and Michigan State. The host, Miami (Ohio), had another sound meet finishing a close 2nd behind the Spartans.
Several Division III schools also competed at Oxford, primarily to earn credit for the selection process of teams for their national finals. Division III Kenyon finished 3rd in the Invitational ahead of Western Kentucky, the University of Cincinnati, Indiana University and Ball State.
"This was a hard meet to manage at because there were so many teams there," said Seibold-Caudill. "For most of the division III schools this was a championship meet.
"If we had rested and tapered we could have beat them, but I decided that were going to look at this as just another Invitational. We will be placing all our emphasis upon doing well at the MAC Championships."
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