Led by Ryan Bounds and Ryan Plantz, the Ball State men's swimming and diving team cruised to a 145-95 victory over visiting Illinois-Chicago Friday night.
Bounds (500-yard and 1000-yard freestyle) and Plantz (3-meter and 1-meter diving) led the way with two victories apiece. In all, the Cardinals won nine events and had 23 top-three finishes.
Coach Bob Thomas was happy with the win, but the team didn't improve time-wise in each event as he had hoped.
"I felt good about our overall performance," Thomas said. "Some of (the times) were a little bit slower. (The team has swam) three weekends in a row, and they let up a little bit. Fortunately UIC didn't have that strong of a team, which allowed us to get a victory."
Kurtis Leer (200-yard freestyle), Jason Revere (200-yard butterfly), Josh Schum (100-yard freestyle) and Adam Konopka (200-yard backstroke) added wins. Ball State also won the 400-yard medley relay. The Cardinals had seven second-place finishes and seven third-place finishes.
Thomas was pleased with the swims of Leer in the 200-yard freestyle, Ryan Bounds in the distance events and Adam Konopka in the 200-yard backstroke, but he was especially happy with the performance of Plantz.
"He had an outstanding meet. It was really his best performance of the season up to this point," Thomas said. "It couldn't have come at a better time."
Ryan Bowman finished second in the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly. The Cardinals swept the 200-yard backstroke and had a race amongst themselves as third-place finisher Jim Lullo came in 0.39 seconds behind winner Konopka. Thomas called it "a real strong showing."
"(Konopka) usually is two seconds faster," Thomas said. "He was a little off his time. Jeff Sheets really had a great swim to finish third, almost within striking distance to win the race."
Erik Goodrich added second places in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle. Diver Zach Whitaker added a second place in the 3-meter event and third in the 1-meter event.
Ball State is now 7-3 on the season and 1-2 in the Mid-American Conference. Next week is the final dual meet of the season for the Cardinals as they face conference rival Ohio. The MAC championships follow almost a month later.
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