In the first three years of her collegiate career, Valerie McGowan won zero events. In the first dual meet of her senior year, the diver won two events.
McGowan won the women's one-meter dive and the three-meter dive for the Ball State University swimming and diving team against Eastern Michigan University Friday.
"It was a pretty big accomplishment," McGowan said.
In addition to McGowan's two wins, the Cardinals won 20 more events. Overall Ball State won 22 of the meet's 28 events. The women's team won 143 to 85 while the men's team won 139 to 94.
Coach Laura Seibold-Caudill said she was very pleased with the Cardinals' performance.
"We were pretty deep and very successful," she said.
Ball State won all of the relays except for one in the meet.
The Cardinals' 'A' teams won the women's 400-yard medley relay, the men's 400-yard medley relay and the men's 200-yard freestyle relay.
"We did very well," junior Mark Augustyn said. "We started strong and stayed strong throughout the meet."
Augustyn won the men's 200-yard freestyle at the event.
The most successful men's swimmer was junior Kyle Hembree who won two events, the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle.
"I thought our seniors did a great job in leadership," Seibold-Caudill said. "And our freshman did great and will be key players."
Three Cardinal freshmen won events. Katie Bylsma won the women's 50-yard freestyle, Maria Gramelspacher won the women's 200-yard butterfly and Wells Arwood won the men's 200-yard butterfly.
The Ball State men's team got victories from sophomores Ben Battjes and Tyler Dixon. The women's team got victories from senior Addison Del Rio, junior Erika Paul, junior Lauren Harger, sophomore Emily Hurst and sophomore Mary Ehresman.
In addition to the meet, the Cardinals had their annual alumni event.
About 30 to 40 people returned for the event, Seibold-Caudill said.
She said the purpose of the event is to keep the team's alumni connected to the program.
"Not everybody competed but everybody comes back," she said.
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