Last Saturday at Valparaiso, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams both won, but head coach Ray Padovan felt they looked tired and unfocused.

“I didn’t think we swam very well [at Valpo],” said Padovan. “Two or three people came around but the rest of us were kind of sluggish.

“If we don’t swim a lot better Thursday we are going to get beat because it’s going to be a very close meet, especially with the men.”

The Panthers will need to swim to the best of their abilities tonight as they take on the Jaguars of IUPUI in Indianapolis at 5:30 p.m. Eastern faces a much more talented team than their last two meets against Millikin and Valparaiso. IUPUI head coach Jim Shuck has the Jaguars swimming at a high level lately.

The Jaguars are coming off a win versus Saint Louis and South Dakota State where they set multiple personal and team records. The IUPUI male divers took the top three spots in the 1-meter and 3-meter competitions, sweeping both events.

Three of their divers met NCAA standards and qualified for the Zones Diving Regional at that meet.

Sophomore James Eckerty won the 1-meter last weekend with a career and team best 313.87. This was the fourth best all-time score at IUPUI.

Fellow sophomore Josh Reidy finished second with a career-best 301.85, and freshman Jaron Tuttle took third with a mark of 300.60.

The trio did equally well in the 3-meter. Riedy and Tuttle both had a career-best and a school-best on the same day.

Tuttle beat the school record first by almost 11 points with a score of 334.20. Riedy then one-upped him with a 337.42 mark. Eckerty had a career-best 305.85 to take third.

“The guys we are going up against went to Zones last year too so they’re pretty good,” said Eastern sophomore Joe Laird.

For the women, the Jaguars did not win any of the events at their last meet. That is more of an indicator of the skill of their opponents because the women did break some records as well.

Freshman diver Elizabeth Scott set two school records while coming in second in the 1 and 3-meter events. Senior Lindsay Anderson finished second in the 1000 freestyle while beating her won school record. She also took third in the 500-meter freestyle with the fifth fastest time in IUPUI history.

The Panther diving squad has had a lot of time to practice and train. The last two meets versus Millikin and Valparaiso did not feature diving. Laird talked about getting back into competition:

“It’s great, I like the competition a lot,” Laird said. “I know that I have to actually perform, so it’s a lot better to dive against somebody than to dive against yourself.”