Ten years ago the men's swimming and diving team achieved its highest finish at the Mid-American Conference Championships with second place.-á The team matched the mark March 8 at Buffalo, finishing behind Eastern Michigan, which had 938 points.
The runner-up finish and 578 points are an improvement from 2002's sixth place and 297 points.
The team had a goal of finishing in the top three this year and nearly missed the goal as it entered the last day of competition in fourth place, head coach Bob Thomas said.
"It looked like a two-team match for second and then we were way back there in fourth place," he said, "but the guys swam great on Saturday, everybody scored.
It was just a tremendous effort by everybody."
Thomas said he made a strategic move before the competition started.-á With one diver injured and out for the meet, Thomas said he decided to leave his second diver, junior Fred Hill, in Muncie to maximize the team's strength in other events.
"The people who were on the bubble were breast-strokers, and there was a big exodus last year of breastroke because of graduation," he said. "So the place where it looked like we would score the most points was in breaststroke, which is where we did. It made sense to bring our strengths and leave our weakness at home, which is what I did."
In addition to his team's highest finish in ten years, Thomas also won MAC Coach of the Year.
"I have to give my congratulations to the team," he said. "I couldn't have done it without them."
"Everybody's making it a team effort," Thomas said.-á "They're pulling together so it was really special for me to get that award as coach of the year."
Sophomore Ryan Bowman, junior Jason Revere, junior Chad Rusk and freshman Kurtis Leer all received conference second team honors.
Leer's time in the 200 freestyle set a new school record, and Thomas said he could be invited to swim at the NCAA Championships.
Thomas said it is possible that in the years to come his team will create a formidable opponent for the other teams in the MAC.
"With the youth of the team, definitely a championship is within their future, but it's going to take a lot of hard work on their part," he said. "It's going to take commitment and committing to that kind of goal, and you can't do it on a few bodies. It takes a team effort."
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