Swimming & Diving Places Five On Academic All-MAC Squad

March 19, 2009 | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

By: Ball State Athletics

MUNCIE, Ind. - - Five members of the Ball State swimming & diving program have been named to the Academic All-Mid-American Conference team as voted on by the league's faculty athletic representatives.

The BSU men's team is represented on the list by senior Mark Augustyn (Highland, Ind./Highland H.S.), junior Tyler Dixon (Jeffersonville, Ind./Jeffersonville, Ind.), junior Ben Karwoski (Bluffton, Ind./Bluffton H.S.) and sophomore Mark Golden (Itasca, Ill./Lake Park H.S.). Senior Meghan Patterson (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley H.S.) represents the BSU women's squad.

A total of 17 student-athletes were named to the men's team, while 24 student-athletes were named to the women's team. The number of honorees on the Academic All-MAC team are the number that is set for the specific sport for all-conference, or 33 percent of the number of nominees, whichever is greater.

Augustyn, senior secondary math education major with a 3.40 GPA, picks up the honor for the first time in his career after competing in all 10 meets for the Cardinals during the 2008-09 season. He placed 23rd in the 200 freestyle at the 2009 Sun Belt/MAC Championships with a finals time of 1:42.54, while his prelim clocking of 1:42.07 was BSU's fastest of the year and a career-best time. Augustyn also swam the third leg of the 10th-place 800 freestyle relay team at the league meet, while ranking fourth on the squad in the 1650 freestyle with a career-fast time of 17:06.72 which he also collected at the league championship meet.

Dixon, a junior sport management major with a 3.49 GPA, earns Academic All-MAC status for the second time in his career after competing in all 10 meets for the Cardinals during the season. He swam the first leg for the ninth-place 200 medley relay squad at the Sun Belt/MAC Championships, with his 50 backstroke spit in the relay being BSU's fastest of the year. Dixon also ranked second on the team in both the 100 (52.87) and 200 (1:54.25) backstroke, and tallied the squad's fourth-best 200 butterfly time this season at 1:59.19.

Karwoski, a junior exercise science major with a 3.58 GPA, is also a two-time honoree who competed in seven of BSU's 10 meets this season. He ranked second on the squad in the 200 freestyle (1:42.98) and 500 freestyle (4:38.68), with both times coming at the 2009 Sun Belt/MAC Championships. He also led the team with a clocking of 9:47.04 in the 1000 freestyle, while posting the team's third-best effort of the year in the 1650 freestyle at the league championship meet. His times in the 200, 500 and 1650 freestyle were career-best efforts.

Golden, a sophomore secondary education major with a 3.86 GPA, is a first-time award winner who competed in all 10 meets for the Cardinals this season. He placed 16th in the 1650 freestyle (16:00.18) and 23rd in the 500 freestyle (4:36.69) at the 2009 Sun Belt/MAC Championships, while also being a member of the 10th-place 800 freestyle relay squad which swam a time of 6:55.22. Golden's 500 freestyle prelim time of 4:36.48 at the championship meet was BSU's fastest time in the event this season, as was his 1650 freestyle time. He also ranked third on the squad in the 1000 freestyle (9:58.04). Dixon's times in the 500, 1000 and 1650 freestyle were career-best efforts.

Patterson, a senior marketing major with a 3.95 GPA, makes the squad for the first time in her career after competing in 12 of BSU's 14 meets in 2008-09. She posted her fastest time of the season in the 1650 freestyle (17:31.66) at the MAC Championships, which ranked her second on the team. She also ranked second on the squad in the 1000 freestyle (10:41.85) and fifth on the team in the 500 freestyle (5:14.00).

The Cardinals also placed eight student-athletes on the Academic All-MAC Honorable Mention squad. On the men's side, junior Jordan Rantz (Leesburg, Ind./Wawasee H.S.) and sophomore Jeremy Whited (Richmond, Ind./Richmond H.S.) made the honorable mention list, while the women were represented by senior Megan Ploetz (Mount Vernon, Ind./Castle H.S.), junior Mary Ehresman (Lafayette, Ind./Jefferson H.S.), junior Emily Hurst (Zionsville, Ind./North Central H.S.), sophomore Jessica Elzinga (Holland, Mich./West Ottawa H.S.), sophomore Maria Gramelspacher (Jasper, Ind./Jasper H.S.) and sophomore Catherine Ingram (Westfield, Ind./Westfield H.S.).