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MUNCIE, Ind. -- The Ohio swimming and diving team returned to the pool on Saturday, Oct. 30 with a dual against Ball State at the Lewellen Aquatic Center, with the Bobcats winning, 153-147.

"I am so proud of our team. It feels great to win and this group deserves it. We had an opportunity at the first break, being down, to see what kind of fight we had in us." said head coach Mason Norman. "The second half of the meet went our way but we were still down before the free relay. In the end we found a way to win against a very well-coached team in Ball State. "

The Bobcats were led by sophomore Gabrielle Brust (Granville, Ohio) and junior McKenzie Grau (Mason, Ohio) with two first place finishes. Brust took the top spots in both the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke. Grau followed up with two of her own first place finishes in the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle. 

Following up on her second-place finish against Kentucky two weeks ago, sophomore Morgan Croaning (Carmel, Ind.) added another top two finish in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:31.  She would follow up with a second-place place finish in the 400-yard individual medley and fifth place finish in the 500-yard freestyle.

After opening up the meet with a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke, junior Athena Aravantinou (North Bethesda, Md.) started off the second half of the meet with a top finish in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:04.79.

An event later, redshirt junior Kelsey Morgan (Pickerington, Ohio) and freshman Julia Strine (Shippensburg, PA) claimed the top two spots with a time of 2:20.05 and 2:22.60 respectively in the 200-yard breaststroke.

In a close contest, the first place 400-yard freestyle relay of Grau, junior Emma Fortman (Madeira, Ohio), sophomore Caroline Dunigan (Lansdale, Pa.) and Brust sealed the win for the Bobcats. The time of 3:28.43 was three seconds faster than second place finisher Ball State.

The Bobcats will be back in action on Saturday, Nov. 6 at the Aquatic Center for a dual against Buffalo. The meet is set to start at 11 am.

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