Ball State men's swim and dive finished day two of the Mid-American Conference Championships with no swimmers in the top 16 for finals tonight, but they did finish with 13 out of 19 swimmers swimming personal best times. Head swimming coach Bob Thomas said their success came from working hard all year.

"Making those small sacrifices that add up," Thomas said. "Then putting it all together for this weekend."

Junior Banistre Lienhart dropped the most on the day in the 500-yard freestyle. Lienhart dropped eight seconds, with a personal best time of 4:45.78.

One of the highest places on the day was senior Austin Green in the 50-yard freestyle. Green finished tied for 21st with a time of 21.20 seconds.

In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Cardinals placed sixth with a season-best time of 1:23.59. Leading off the relay was freshman Ben Andrew. Andrew was followed by Lienhart, sophomore Zach Reichle and Green.

On one-meter diving, sophomore Gabe Dean finished last and did not advance to finals. Dean scored 14.20 points. Head diving coach Nick Gayes said it was not a good day for Dean.

"He struggled to connect on his starts," Gayes said. "It was not a good performance for him."

The pre-lims for three-meter diving start tomorrow. Gayes said today's performance will be forgotten.

"I know that he was pretty disappointed, which means he will be more fired up for tomorrow," Gayes said. "Tomorrow is a brand new day." 

Tomorrow's finals starts at 7 p.m in Carbondale, Ilinois.  

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