Swimmers sink in MAC loss to Ball State

Heather Riedel and Heather Riedel

Even with top individual finishes by Kara Ohngren and Dana Schultz, seniors, and Caroline Keating, junior, the BGSU swimming and diving team were unable to rack up enough points to beat Ball State on Friday.

The 195-105 loss drops the Falcons’ Mid-American Conference record to 0-4.

Ohngren finished first in the 1000-yard freestyle and took second place in the 100-yard breaststroke. She was less than three seconds behind BSU’s Addison Del Rio, sophomore. Schultz, who until this meet had yet to lose a butterfly event in a MAC meet this season, placed second in this 100-yard event. She finished less than one second after BSU’s Erin Johnson, junior. Schultz, however, took first place in the 200-yard butterfly event.

“Dana is not only swimming well right now but training hard,” BG coach Keri Buff said. “She will definitely be a contender for two individual MAC titles.”

Keating also took home individual wins in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle events. Keating holds the BGSU record in the 500 freestyle event and ranks third in the 200 freestyle event.

Aside from the loss, Buff and her team are more concerned with preparing for the MAC Championships. The Falcons are usually slow during the dual meet portion of the season in order to prepare for the end of the year.

“Ball State obviously prepares differently than we do for in-season meets,” Buff said. “We are working hard right now and are right on track to score more points at the MAC Championships than we ever have.

“We aren’#39;t worried about what other teams are doing right now,” she continued. “We are just trying to take care of our business. We are making sure that we will pass several of them at the end [MAC Championships].”

The swimmers and divers of BGSU will take the next few weeks to prepare for the Ohio State Invitational, which takes place Dec. 2-4 in Columbus.