After a dual meet loss against defending Mid-American Conference champions, Ball State men’s swim and dive return this weekend for the Butler Invitational. Head swimming coach Bob Thomas said he’s concerned about the health of his athletes going into this invitational.
“That’s our biggest concern at this point with the flu outbreak,” Thomas said. “We’re at a very critical point, we’re in our championship phase. We have a meet every weekend. They can’t afford to get sick now.”
At this meet, the Cardinals will be facing St. Louis, Southern Illinois, Valparaiso and Xavier.
Xavier was one of the teams that Ball State faced at the tri-meet on Jan. 5. Thomas said Xavier is very strong and provides great competition for his team.
“But as far as the ability to score more than them is yet to be seen,” Thomas said. “We will find out tomorrow and we will do our best to get as close or ahead of them.”
Also at this invitational, the Cardinals will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with a MAC opponent, before the championship next month.
“It’s kind of a nice opportunity to face another MAC school,” Thomas said. “Southern Illinois brings a lot of competition to the table and we will do what we can against them.”
All of the teams included have had breakout performers and big meets for themselves. The teams will compete in the 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle relay and three-meter diving.
Breakout performances and athletes to watch
St. Louis comes into the Butler Invitational with a previous meet victory over Evansville and improved its overall record to 8-4. In the dual meet, the Billikens won 11 events against the Purple Aces.
In the 200-yard freestyle, junior Isaiah Williams recorded a personal-best time of 1:42.56. One of the athletes to watch for in the 100-yard freestyle for the Billikens is sophomore Grant Streid who added time with a 46.98. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the ‘A’ relay consisting of freshmen Luke Van Gorp and Sean O’Connor and sophomores Tyler Guist and Williams. This ‘A’ relay won the event in 1:27.66.
In three-meter diving, the Cardinals have to look out for freshman Harrison Niswonger, who scored 130.50 points in a previous meet.
Valparaiso comes into this meet with an 0-5 overall record. At the Carthage Classic in November, the Crusaders placed third out of 10 teams. At that meet, junior Mac Sogandares recorded a personal-best time of 1:45.59 and finished in third place.
In the 100-yard freestyle, sophomore Harrison Jenny swam a personal-best time of 47.83 to take fourth place. The ‘A’ 200-yard freestyle relay, consisting of Sogandares, senior Max Penn, junior Dylan Kirar and Jenny, placed third with a time of 1:27.31.
Valparaiso has no divers to worry about for this invitational. However, Southern Illinois's diving squad enters the competition with a 2-1 record. In its previous meet against Ouachita Baptist, Southern Illinois won 186-67 and recorded wins in 13 out of the 16 events.
In the 200-yard freestyle sophomore Chris Phillips achieved a personal-best time of 1:43.55. Also winning the 100-yard freestyle was sophomore Tamas Hajtman (47.06). The ‘A’ 200-yard freestyle relay consisting of sophomores Benson Jones, Matt Ciezczak, Hajtman and senior Alex Crawford, won the event with a time of 1:26.84.
In this meet, there was no three-meter diving. But at the Purdue Invitational, where the Salukis faced teams like Florida, Indiana and North Carolina, sophomore Kai Hoffmann-Dussome recorded a season-best of 271.75 points to take 18th place.
The last team to look at is Xavier, whom the Cardinals had faced at the IUPUI tri-meet.
The Musketeers have had one meet, since the last time the Cardinals faced them. They come into the Butler Invitational with an overall record of 4-7. At a tri-meet against Cincinnati and Virginia Tech last weekend, Xavier lost to both teams.
In the tri-meet, freshman Jared Ritz added time in the 200-yard freestyle, with a time of 1:44.49. In the 100-yard freestyle, junior Sam Johanns added time (47.21) to take fourth place.
The 200-yard freestyle relay consisting of Ritz, Johanns, freshman Alex Sironen and senior Robert Snader, finished in fourth place with a time of 1:27.08.
Whom to watch for: Freshmen in all four events
This week at practices, freshman Davis Meyn has been focusing on keeping his stroke count down.
“Because after last weekend, I noticed I was taking too many strokes in the 500,” Meyn said. “I have been trying to lower it this week.”
Meyn hopes that with a lower stroke count, he will be able to reduce his time in the 500-yard freestyle.
Last weekend against Eastern Michigan, Meyn posted a time of 4:57.25 in the 500-yard freestyle and finished in fourth place. He also swam 1:46.90 in the 200-yard freestyle and finished in third. Going into the start of the season, Meyn said he would swim the 200-yard freestyle as fast as he could.
“I have definitely adjusted that strategy,” Meyn said. “I started to save up for the first 100 or so, so I can finish stronger for the rest of the event.”
Another freshmen to watch for this weekend is Drew Weeks, who has focused on his sprint work this season, since he swims both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events. Weeks said his goal for this weekend in the 50-yard freestyle is to go quicker than he did last weekend.
“I think for the 50 I’m not the biggest guy compared to someone of them in the 50,” Weeks said. “I just try and get out quick on my starts, work the turn and see where it goes from there.”
At the last meet, both Meyn and Weeks were two swimmers apart of the 200-yard freestyle relay, which finished in third place with a time of 1:28.63.
“We’re both freshmen, so it’s a really cool opportunity to just go out there, swim fast and score points for the team,” Weeks said.
Freshman Season Wolfe has also shown to be a promising part on the Cardinals' roster this season. After sitting out in the meet against Eastern Michigan with the flu, head coach diving coach Nick Gayes is looking forward to seeing Wolfe compete.
“He’s very talented and needs to let his muscle memory kick in,” Gayes said. “He needs to trust himself even after having been in out for the last six weeks or so.”
The Butler Invitational is slated to start at 12 p.m. on Saturday at Fishers High School.
Contact Patrick Murphy with comments at prmurphy2@bsu.edu.
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