Both the men's and women's swimming and diving teams suffered hard-fought losses to Mid-American Conference opponent Eastern Michigan on Saturday afternoon.
"Even if you don't win the meet, you can always look at your [individual] performance times, and judge your [team] performance based on that." co-coach Laura Seibold-Caudill said.
Both co-coachs Seibold-Caudill and Bob Thomas were very pleased with their team's efforts.
The women's team lost by 37 points, even though as a team they posted 28 season-best times, according to Seibold-Caudill and Thomas.
Meghan Patterson had two season and personal best times in the 500 and 1650 yard freestyle events. She placed third in the 500 with a time of 5:08.43, and had the time of 17:15.88 in the 1650. The 1650-yard freestyle time was also the third-best time for the event in Ball State history and was the eighth-best time in the MAC, according to Thomas.
Mary Brinkoetter, Erika Paul, and Brittany Sayler also had first-place finishes in the 400-yard individual medley, 200-yard butterfly, and 200-yard backstroke events.
The men's team lost by a final tally of 148-83, and posted 18 season-best times.
Josh Schum had two of those 18 season-best times in the 100 and 200-freestyle events. He placed third behind teammate Kurtis Leer with a time of 46.94 in the 100 and second in the 200 with a time of 1:43.66.
According to Thomas, Schum was out for two months last fall with medical problems and has worked hard to get back to competitive times for the team.
"It really takes a competitive individual to step up and do their best, no matter the outcome," said Thomas about Schum and the team's season best times.
Even though both teams lost their meets, the coaches are more focused on individual times and how they are responding to all of the training they received over Winter Break.
"We're on track and we're doing what we need to be doing at the right time of the year," Seibold-Caudill said. "We're starting to peak right now, we haven't even rested yet and we're starting to see season-best times."
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