Ball State University men's swimming coach Bob Thomas is a tough man to please.
Although he is content with how his team has done this year, Thomas is never entirely satisfied with the results. His hunger for improvement is insatiable, and all the swimmers must perform at their very best for him to really happy about the performance. So it is a sign of how well the Cardinals swam in the first day that Thomas called his team's effort "awesome."
The Cardinals had 16 personal best times out of 20 swims Thursday, good enough to compile 89 points. Ball State is still only in sixth place, 125 points behind first place Eastern Michigan University.
"We had one of our best first days in quite some time," Thomas said, "We're doing a nice job."
Ben Battjes and Austin Laska both advanced to the 50 freestyle final in the nightcap, and they took 3rd and 7th, respectively. Freshman Devon Hill advanced to the consolation final, and placed 14th.
Mark Golden finished 16th in the 500 freestyle finals, and Jeremy Whited matched that in the 1 meter diving final.
The 200 relay team of Battjes, Casey Schroeder, Hill, and Laska finished 4th in the finals, and the 400 relay team of Tyler Dixon, Gavin McNeely, Chris Krupa, and Battjes finished 6th.
Coach Thomas attributes a lot of the success of his 50 freestyle swimmers to friendly competition.
"They [Laska and Battjes] definitely push each other," Thomas said, "and the friendly competition helps."
Ball State continues the MAC championships Friday at noon.
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