Men's swimming and diving head coach Bob Thomas said his team is on the right track, despite a loss to the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday.
Ball State fell 136-104 in East Lansing, Mich. The Cardinals had three first place finishes in individual events: Ryan Bowman in the 200-meter freestyle, Andy Young in the 200-meter butterfly and Ritchie Caudill in the 200-meter breaststroke.
One of the team's goals going into the competition was to have the best individual duel meet times of the year.
"We got a little over 35 percent so that was a pretty good showing," Thomas said. "I would say most of the swimmers had at least one best duel meet time."
Ball State was swept in the 1000-meter freestyle, and the long distance event continues to cripple the Cardinals.
"I feel they are capable of much faster times," Thomas said. "I feel we are capable of competing at a higher level in our distance races. We just have not put it together yet."
Thomas has tried lineup changes in long distance races in the past, but he said the problem may be due to lack of maturity for some of his swimmers.
"Two of them are freshmen and hopefully they are gaining a lot of experience in these collegiate meets," Thomas said.
Thomas sees a need for one important element in his team's quest for improvement.
"Rest. They have done pretty much the bulk of the hard work," Thomas said. "We are in our championship meet phase. [The swimmers] look to specialize in particular events, the event they are going to swim in at the conference meet."
The Cardinals are off this week, and will not compete until Jan. 25 against Wright State University, but will stay with their regular practice routine.
"This week we will continue on our normal program," Thomas said. "We have three days of high anaerobic work, and then we usually go to three days of volume training."
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