The season came to an end Saturday for the Ball State women's swimming and diving team with a fifth place finish at the Mid-American Conference Championship at Bowling Green's Cooper Pool.
The Cardinals finished with a score (312.50 overall points) just high enough to outlast the host Falcons for the fifth spot.
The Miami Redhawks won the MAC crown by holding off a traditionally strong Ohio program for the second straight season.
According to head coach Laura Seibold-Caudill, the meet's outcome was satisfactory, although the team did not meet its goal of placing third or fourth. Ball State might have finished in front of Toledo, if the team had only notched a few higher place finishes, Seibold-Caudill said.
"We moved up from last year, so we're happy with it," she said. "Going into the meet, if you looked at the rankings...Bowling Green and Akron could have beaten us."
"I was pleased with their performances. We had a lot of people who swam very well."
Junior Kait Martin capped off the best performance of her collegiate career with third place finishes in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke events. She set new Ball State school records with respective times of 57.58 and 2:04.58 in the events.
"(Kait) is very intense and very dedicated," Seibold-Caudill said. "She has a way of being able to get her mind set and being able to pull it off. I think she has been a great motivator for Sarah Welter."
Sophomore teammate Sarah Welter gave the team an added boost with strong times over the weekend. Welter swam the first leg of the Card's 200 free relay event and notched an impressive 15th place showing in the 100 backstroke after originally being seeded 55th in the event. Seibold-Caudill said Welter really overachieved and rose to the occasion during the competition by scoring in three events.
Ball State junior Emily Aubie matched Martin's performance with a third place finish in the finals of the 400-yard individual medley. Additionally, the Ontario native finished seventh in the 200-yard IM, in light of a ninth place swim in the consolation bracket of the 200 butterfly.
As a result of her standout times, Aubie gained her second consecutive All-MAC second team selection. Martin barely missed recognition, needing only one more top sixteen finish to be eligible.
The team also put up near record times in the 200 and 400-yard free relays and the 400-yard individual medley relay.
"It's just a matter of pulling it all together next year," Seibold-Caudill added. "This team is very dedicated and team-oriented. Once the freshmen get there and see what (the championships) are like, we can look for them to be even better."
The Cardinals scored 33.5 more points and finished one spot higher at the 2003 meet, showing improvement from a year ago.
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