It had been 27 days since their last meet.
On Friday evening, the Cardinals (3-1, 0-1 MAC) came out eager to showcase the work they have been putting in since, but they lost 155-137 to Miami (Ohio) (3-0, 1-0 MAC). However, despite the loss, head coach J. Agnew said he believes the team put its best foot forward and numerous individuals contributed solid performances.
“I would say it was a really good team effort tonight,” Agnew said. “I think we had six different individual event winners, [and] probably, the highlight was Caitlin Locante. She won both diving boards and actually got an NCAA cut to qualify for zones.”
Agnew said he noticed his team’s liveliness and believes practices contributed to the competitive showing.
“You could just tell they were so excited to race,” Agnew said. "It has been a stretch of training. But, we train so we can race — that’s the point. So, getting out in competition and having a great meet against a good Miami team was a lot of fun for these guys.”
Locante won the 1-meter diving with a final score of 296.25. She also took home first place in the 3-meter diving with a score of 314.25.
Other individual victories for Ball State came from junior Katie Walker in the 1000 Freestyle (10:32.52), senior Audrey Schank in the 100 Backstroke (59:01), junior Alex Bader in the 100 Breaststroke (1:02.91), freshman Sophia Kuehn in the 200 Backstroke (2:06.81) and freshman Laura Wright in the 200 Breaststroke (2:20.01).
The Cardinals return to action Saturday, Feb. 13, hosting Xavier at 12 p.m. Despite the quick turnaround, Agnew believes the Cardinals will be prepared, energized and will take lessons from Friday’s meet.
“I think you always learn something every time you race,” Agnew said. “So, we picked up a few lessons here. Race strategy, how we're gonna how we're gonna approach out races, but we're excited. I think everybody's coming out of here with a lot of energy. We will definitely be ready to race [Saturday], for sure.”
Contact Charleston Bowles with comments at clbowles@bsu.edu or on Twitter @cbowles01.