Heading into this weekend's meets with Valparaiso and conference rival Toledo, the Ball State women's swimming and diving team will compete with a tan after spending part of their winter break training in Florida.
After repeating a Zippy Invitational champions Dec. 6, the Cardinals headed to Florida for a 10-day training trip during the break where they swam against other schools in competition. By NCAA rules, the team had to compete in a meet in order to make the trip.
The women's team joined the men's for the trip to Florida where they competed against Indian Rivers and Kentucky. Coach Laura Seibold-Caudill said she was pleased with the outcome of the meet, as well as the trip as a whole. The two teams trained for 10 days under the Florida sun.
"It was a great training trip," she said. "We had great weather, and it was a really excellent experience."
The Cardinals now turn their attention back to Muncie when Valparaiso visits Friday evening for a 5 p.m. start.
Valpo's Ashley Seale was named this week's Mid-Continent Conference Athlete of the Week after helping the Crusaders in a losing effort to Hope College with a first place finish in the 100 breast. The Crusaders also finished with four firsts and five second places in that meet, and are 1-3 for the season.
Saturday, Toledo comes to Muncie for a 4 p.m. showdown with the Cardinals. Toledo recently finished third at the Eastern Michigan Invitational and is currently 3-3 overall in dual meets and 2-1 in MAC competition.
This weekend, Seibold-Caudill said she expects her team to have their hands full with Toledo.
"We're going to have to do the best we can," she said. "It's going to be an extremely close meet. Both teams are equally matched."
Although the two conference rivals are evenly matched including in the breast event, Seibold-Caudill said she expects Toledo to hold an advantage in depth in the distance events, although she expects the Cardinals to have more depth in the IM.
"The distance swimmers have been training very well, so I'm interested in seeing if they can step up," she said. "We just have to go in with the confidence that we can win."
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