Ball State University
Eastern Michigan
WS&D Welcomes Eastern Michigan In Home Opener
October 31, 2015 | Women's Swimming and Diving
MUNCIE, Ind. - The Ball State women's swimming and diving team held its home opener Saturday afternoon against Mid-American Conference foe Eastern Michigan, and while the Cardinals had a strong showing, they ultimately fell to the Eagles 179-115.
"I'm happy with our team performance overall, but we are definitely still improving from week-to-week, and from meet-to-meet," Ball State women's swimming and diving head coach Kristy Castillo said. "There are still some areas that are needing to be more consistent in some races, but we are certainly making improvements and we are seeing results from the training that we're doing."
Top finishes for the Cardinals included junior Courtney Mudd's second place finish in the 100 backstroke (1:00.09), as well as junior Katie Horn's time of 2:08.85 for a second place finish in the 200 butterfly. Horn also went on to cinch first in the 100 fly in a 58.17 final.
Freshman Liz Madison was a standout in the 1000 and 500 freestyle, earning third in both events, with times of 10:44.73 and 5:16.37, respectively. Both times marked new career-bests for the Normal, Ill. native.
Sophomore Amanda Kedzierski was the first Cardinal to touch the wall in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:06.62, which landed her a third place finish. Teammates Jessica Extine and Allie Kolz each earned third place honors of their own, in the 50 free (24.77) and the 200 back (2:11.41), respectively.
In diving action, senior Madie Zirzow earned second overall honors in one-meter action with a score of 241.65, while she then went on to post a score of 251.63 on the three-meter board. Junior diver Quinn Bixler trailed Zirzow on the one-meter, earning a third place finish with a score of 240.45, paired with a three-meter score of 216.98.
"Madie is definitely a leader in our program and one of our captains, so she is certainly doing her job both with the team and on the boards as well," Castillo added. "It's nice to have that NCAA Zone mark hit early in the season, so that takes some of the pressure off and allows her to relax a little bit and own the boards a bit more."
Looking ahead, the women's swimming and diving program will have three weeks off from ccompetition, until they host the 12th annual Doug Coers Invitational at the Lewellen Aquatic Center with the men's swimming and diving team on Nov. 21 at 12 p.m.
"We are going to really be getting back to our training over the next couple weeks. It's tough when we have those back-to-back meets on back-to-back weekends because we're taking a whole day of training out of that," said Castillo. "It will be nice to give them some recovery, but at the same time we will be getting back to some training. We will revisit the competition again in a couple weeks and hopefully see some more good results from there."
For the most up-to-date news on Ball State women's swimming and diving action, follow @BallStateSports and @BallStateWSwim on Twitter.
Players Mentioned
