The men's swimming and diving team continued its successful season as it went to New York this weekend and beat the University at Buffalo 160-81.
The win on Saturday pushed Ball State's record to 2-0 overall and 2-0 in Mid-American Conference competition. The team won eight of the 13 events. Six were individual victories, and two were relay wins.
Head coach Bob Thomas said the Cardinals did not perform at their best, but led from the first event and cruised to the victory. The 10-hour bus ride was a reason the team did not swim at its peak ability, Thomas said.
"There was some sluggishness overall," Thomas said. "As much as you would like to perform at your best, the drive has an effect. It would have taken another day for us to be totally rested."
In the fourth event of the meet, Ball State opened up the score with a 1-2-3 sweep in the 50-meter freestyle, which Thomas called one of the team's strong points. Sophomore Ryan Bowman won the event.
The Cardinals did not win the next event, but finished 2-3-4, which coach Thomas said was important because it "took the wind out of their sails."
After a win by the Bulls in one meter diving, which cut the lead to 29 points, the Cardinals responded in the next two events with 1-2-3 sweeps in the 200-meter fly and 100-meter freestyle, which were won by sophomore Andy Young and sophomore Ryan Bowman.
"Once we had the sweep in the fly and the freestyle, it really put us in too big of a lead," Thomas said. "At that point the meet was pretty much over."
The last individual win was in the 200-meter breaststroke by freshman Ritchie Caudill for the second-straight meet.
Despite the apparently dominating win by the Cardinals, Thomas still sees room for improvement.
"It's still early in the season," Thomas said. "There are still a lot of swimming meets to go. By no means are we done improving."
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