Over the past couple of days, Ball State Men’s Swim and Dive has traveled more than 366 miles on the road. The majority of those miles was spent en route to and from Terre Haute on Saturday.
To start off the weekend, the Cardinals faced Southern Illinois in a dual meet. In the first event, Ball State picked up the gold and bronze medals in the 200 medley relay. After 12 events, the Cardinals' next event victory came from junior Ben Andrew in the 50 freestyle. Andrew picked up the first medal while freshman Duncan McLarty finished fourth. After a long meet, the Cardinals would pack up their bags and travel two hours back to Ball State.
After the trip there and back from Indiana State, the Cardinals had a short trip down the road to Fishers High School on Sunday for the Butler Invitational. Junior Luke Nondorf said this traveling tests him a little bit.
“It’s a good test because the Mid-American Conference Championship isn’t going to be at home,” Nondorf said. “You have to get used to traveling. It’s just what you must do when you’re not at home. It’s definitely a good thing.”
Twenty-two events into the invitational, junior Spencer Ball was the first Cardinal to drop time in the 200 breaststroke. He beat his seed time by 1.39 seconds (2:16.51). In the last individual event, the 200 Individual Medley, two more Cardinals dropped from their seeded time. Sophomore Ryan Jackowiak dropped 3.03 seconds from his seed time (2:12.64). A heat later, Nondorf dropped time again, breaking his time (2:05.00) by 1.87 seconds. Nondorf said he forgot how much this event hurts at the end.
“It definitely caught up to me quick,” Nondorf said. “You turn from breaststroke to freestyle, then it all settles in your body.”
The Cardinals were able to finish fifth out of eight teams at this invitational. At this point in the season, head coach J. Agnew said he wasn’t really worried about his athletes’ times, but how it’s all about racing hard, tired and trying to do the little things correct.
“It’s not so much about time right here, that’s great feedback on your race and how we’re improving,” Agnew said. “But they know it’s time to prepare for a championship.”
Contact Patrick Murphy with comments at prmurphy2@bsu.edu or on Twitter @PMURPH505.
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