There is only one message for Ball State going into their final meet of the 2023-24 season, finish strong. The Cardinals did just that by walking away from the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association (CSCAA) National Invitational Championship with a handful of success that they can end their season with their heads held high.

Ball State collected three medals during three days of competition in Ocala, Florida. Meanwhile, for diving, sophomore Porter Brovont traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, to participate in the one-meter and three-meter events in the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships.

Despite qualifying for the NCAA Championships, Brovont failed to make the finals by finishing 22nd on the three-meter (286.00) and 27th on the one-meter (233.20). This comes after Brovont finished 18th in the one-meter dive (214.45) and took fourth in the three-meter dive (301.10) at the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Championships just a few days ago.

Ball State took a handful of swimmers to participate at the invitational championships with only being able to produce only a handful of finalists each day throughout a hard-fought meet. Despite this, however, the success of overcoming the hard-fought events, made the victories so much sweeter.

The Cardinals got their first medalist off of fifth-year senior Joey Garberick, with him claiming the National Invitational title in the 50 breaststroke (23.89). Garberick came off of massive success at the MAC Championships as he earned his fourth MAC title in the 100 breaststroke and his first 200 breaststroke title. He also owns the program records in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke events.

The second came from sophomore Payton Kelly, who like Garberick is riding the success at the MAC Championships. Kelly took the silver medal in the 50 freestyle (22.40) at the MAC Championships and followed the performance up by capturing the bronze medal at the National Invitational (22.59). As a sophomore, Kelly is currently the short-distance freestyle program record holder, with her holding the program records in the 50, 100, and 200 freestyle events.

After the strong showing on day one, Ball State had a bump in the road on day two as they did not find any medalists on the day, but did find a handful of finalists across the board. Garberick added another top finish by finishing fifth in the 100 breaststroke (52.57), while also participating in the championship final of the 200 freestyle relay that finished seventh (1:27.69). 

Fifth-year senior Bryce Handshoe rounded out the stand-out performances as he placed eighth in the consolation final of the 100 butterfly to place in the top 20 in the event (18th). Kelly also added another impressive performance finishing second in the consolation final and 12th overall in the 100 backstroke (54.65). She would later finish tenth in the 100 freestyle on the final day of competition as well.

To finish out the meet on the final day, Ball State got some young stand-outs with freshman Tommy Brunner having two top 20 finishes in both the 1000 and 1650 freestyles, finishing 20th in the 1000 freestyle (9:53.04) and 19th in the 1650 freestyle (16:24.65). 

Freshman Alexa von Holtz finally broke through by taking the silver medal in the 200 butterfly (1:58.58) after a slow start, and snatched the program record in the event. The old record was held by Mallory Miles which was set in 2013 (1:59.93). The freshman standout ends her season with two program records under her belt (the 200 butterfly and 200 IM) and ranked second in program history in the 400 IM (4:21.75), a very impressive first impression on the program.

Despite the exciting performances for Ball State in this meet, the season draws to a close for both the men’s and women’s teams. It has been a roller coaster of a season for the Cardinals and there has been a lot of adversity for both teams to face throughout this year, and it is through that adversity that lessons will be learned and challenges will be faced going into next season.

Contact Dane Massey with comments at dtmassey@bsu.edu or on Twitter @danemassey22.

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