Despite swimming well in its previous two meets, the Ball State University men's swimming and diving team had two losses to show for it.
So, in Ball State's meet against Eastern Illinois University and Valparaiso University on Sunday, coach Bob Thomas had one desire: a win.
His team accomplished just that Sunday, totaling 644 points en route to a first-place finish.
Ben Battjes led the Ball State effort with event wins in the 50-yard freestyle (21.23) and 100 freestyle (47.8) and a third-place finish in the 100 butterfly (53.70). He also was a part of the 400 freestyle relay team that placed first. Casey Schroeder, Devon Hill, Austin Laska and Battjes combined for a time of 3:09.51.
Thomas was very pleased with the senior's effort.
'Ben Battjes did an awesome job today and was our most valuable swimmer of the meet,' Thomas said.
Quinton Rodriguez won two events for the Cardinals, taking the one-meter diving event with a score of 224.85 and the three-meter diving event with a score of 201.25. Other event winners were Chris Krupa (51.68 in the 100 butterfly), Ben Karwoski (4:53.83 in the 500 freestyle) and Mark Golden (16:59.33 in the 1650 freestyle).
The win took place on the second of consecutive days of swimming for the Cardinals. The ability to swim well on two straight days is something that Thomas likes to see from his team.
'Our training prepares us for these competitions,' he said. 'We swim six or seven days a week, and we swim twice a day three times a week. We want the ability to come back and perform at a certain level, and that's what we did today.'
The Cardinals do not have a competition this week, and Thomas says that his players are looking forward to the week off from meets. Ball State does not compete until Feb. 6 when it plays host to Miami University on Senior Night. It will be Ball State's last dual meet of the season.
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