Jan. 9, 2006
Butler returned to action Friday and Saturday (Jan. 6-7) at the University of Indianapolis Invitational. Juniors Raj Duggal and Mary Beth Arnold turned in the top performances for the Bulldogs finishing third in the 1650-yd. freestyle and 400-yd. individual medley, respectively. The host Greyhounds, IUPUI and Grand Valley State joined Butler in the four-team meet.
"The goal for this invitational was to take advantage of individual and relay racing opportunities and identify strengths and weaknesses in skills," said Butler coach Maurice Stewart. "Overall, I felt the team did a nice job in accomplishing these objectives especially after 10 straight days of practice and competing under tremendous physical and mental stress as the first half of our holiday training comes to an end. In addition, I was pleasantly surprised with the positive team encouragement and spirit over the weekend."
Duggal got to the wall in 17:24.43 in the 1650-yd. freestyle for his third place finish. Arnold posted a time of 5:05.23 in the 400-yd. IM in addition to a season-best 1:08.05 mark in the 100-yd. backstroke. Butler's other top-five finish belonged to Jason Brozek, who placed fourth in the men's 400-yd. IM with a season-best time of 4:32.79.
On the women's side, Stewart highlighted the efforts of Elaine Mohler (first time under 22 minutes in the 1650-yd. freestlyle), Amanda Walter (season-bests in both the 200-yd. and 500-yd. freestyles) and Genny Berning (season-best in the 100-yd. butterfly and 500-yd. freestyle).
Katie Krueger also posted a season-best in the 100-yd. freestyle, joining Melissa Nemec (100-yd. butterfly), Sarah Lynne Gates (500-yd. freestyle) and Elizabeth Shafer (500-yd. freestyle) in personal-bests. Janna Fett placed seventh in the 200-yd. breaststroke.
In men's competition, Jeff Martin posted a season-best time of 2:00.36 in the 200-yd. freestyle. Chris Scroggin registered his first 200-yd. breaststroke time under three minutes and Travis Cheney's mark of 2:20.79 in the 200-yd. butterfly was a season-best by more than five seconds.
Butler returns to action Friday (Jan. 13) at Horizon League foe UW-Green Bay. The dual meet begins at noon.