After taking a month-long hiatus from competition, the men's and women's swimming and diving teams returned to action Friday. The women's team beat the University of Illinois-Chicago (177-64) and Illinois State (169-73), while the men's team lost to UIC (139-104).
"Our winter training paid off and we had a lot of really great swims," graduate assistant coach Erica Janssen said.
The women's 200-yard relay team of Brittany Sayler, Lauren Harger, Erika Paul and Ashley VanOsdol started the great swims by winning the event with a final time of 1:48.80.
Meghan Patterson won the 1000-yard freestyle event with a time of 10:27.09 and Brittany Mishler finished fourth overall in the same event with a time of 10:46.32.
The 200-yard IM event was swept by Addison Del Rio (2:09.52), Mary Brinkoetter (2:09.84) and Erika Paul (2:12.00).
Brinkoetter also swam the 100-yard backstroke and the 500-yard freestyle events back-to-back. She placed second for Ball State and fourth overall in the backstroke with a time of 1:01.63, and first overall in the freestyle with a time of 5:08.85.
"Swimming those two heats so close, and ending up doing the best times of the season, shows that [Brinkoetter] is in condition and ready to race," co-coach Bob Thomas said.
Stephanie Paul won the one meter diving board with 244.90 total points with Katie Boyle taking third overall with a score of 224.95. Paul and Boyle also took fourth and seventh overall in the three meter board.
Erika Paul (58.18), Erin Johnson (59.62), Megan Ploetz (59.77) and Amber Arnold (1:00.04) swept the 100-yard butterfly event overall.
"Our guys did a lot better then I expected them to," Thomas said. "With the times that I saw coming out of Chicago, I thought that they were going to blow us out, but as it was, we were able to hold on and fight them to the finish."
Kyle Hembree (9:51.60) and Jim Lullo (10:01.04) took first and second in the 1000-yard freestyle.
Adam Konopka won the 200-yard IM with a time of 1:57.92. He was followed by teammates Ritchie Caudill (1:57.98) in second and Ryan Franklin in seventh.
Konopka would go on to also take first in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 54.05 seconds.
Zach Whitaker earned top placing on the one-meter diving board with 284.60 points and Caleb Bye earned 231.40 points on the same board. Both would also place second and third respectfully on the three meter board.
"I was really pleased with the total team performance," co-coach Laura Seibold-Caudill said. "I thought they did a really good job supporting each other and backing each other."
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