MAC Women's Swimmer of the Week
Alex Bader, Ball State
Junior, Portland, Ind. (Jay County)
It was a big weekend for Ball State junior breaststroke specialist Alex Bader, who had a hand in a pair of Lewellen Aquatic Center records, picked up a pair of individual event wins and earned a pair of relay victories. Bader started off her week with a dominating performance in the 100 breaststroke Friday at Miami, winning the event by over two seconds with a time of 1:02.91. The effort helped the Cardinals battle the RedHawks to the wire. She also had the fastest 100 breaststroke leg in the 400 medley relay, finishing in 1:02.57 to give the Cardinals nearly a second advantage heading into the third leg. She also placed fourth in a non-traditional swim in the 100 butterfly (58.19) and swam anchor for the second-place 400 freestyle relay. She capped the week with an even better performance in Saturday’s home win over Xavier, starting with helping guide the 200 medley relay to a pool record time of 1:42.24, which is also the sixth-fastest time in program history. The previous record was 1:43.02. In her first individual effort of the day, she followed with her second pool record, this time clocking in at 1:01.92 in the 100 breaststroke to shatter the previous mark of 1:03.04 with the second-fastest individual time in program history. It’s also the third-fastest swim in the event in the MAC so far this season and ranks 88th nationally. She nearly had her third pool record moments later, touching the wall in 2:18.33 in the 200 breaststroke. However, she was out-touched by teammate Laura Wright who broke the record (2:18.57) and climbed to third in program history at 2:17.50. She finished a solid weekend by swimming the third leg for the 200 freestyle relay which closed the meet with a winning time of 1:35.27.
MAC Women's Diver of the Week
Caitlin Locante, Ball State
Senior, Brookfield, Wis. (Brookfield Central)
Senior diver Caitlin Locante followed her school-record performance vs. UIndy (Jan. 16) with another stellar performance at Miami (Feb. 12), picking up wins on both the 1M & 3M boards to help the Cardinals nearly upset the RedHawks in its home pool. Locante's score of 296.25 on the 1-meter board was the best of her career, pushed her past the NCAA Zone Diving "A" cut mark of 295.00 and was the third-best individual effort in program history. She also solidly won the 3-meter competition with a score of 314.25 points, which is just shy of her program-record and NCAA Zone Diving "B" cut mark of 323.625 set versus UIndy.
