The sound of banjos and Bluegrass music blared in Lantz Natatorium Thursday as the Eastern swimming and diving teams prepared for their last home meet of the season.

“This is my motivational music for them late in the season,” said head coach Ray Padovan.

The Panthers will need to be motivated as they take on the Saint Louis University Billikens Saturday at noon. The SLU women are the strength of their team and are 13-0 this season and have won 31 straight dual meets.

“The women are real strong,” said Padovan. “They are probably the second-best women’s team we will see this season.”

The SLU women are led by a Champaign native, freshman Elena Ramirez.

“She is just toppling everything,” said Padovan. “There isn’t an event she can’t swim.”

In her first collegiate meet, Ramirez broke the SLU record in the 200 fly.

Continuing that success through the season she has gone on to break the school records in the 100 fly, 100 back, 1000 free, and swam a leg for the record holding 200-medley relay team.

Just last week all of Ramirez’s times were better than Eastern’s season bests for the whole team.

The Billiken men are talented as well and are 9-4 on the season. They are coming off a victory against Illinois Institute of Technology, Lincoln College, and Lindenwood at the Lindenwood Invitational.

The SLU men’s squad matches up well against the Panthers. Our EIU divers should fare better this weekend, as the SLU divers are not as strong as the IUPUI divers who were dominant last Thursday.

“Their men are real strong across the board and it will be a good meet for our guys,” Padovan said.

Earlier in the season the Panthers went to SLU for a dual meet and were swept.

The men lost 131-111 and the women were beaten 158-64.

Coach Padovan described the Panthers’ performance from November.

“We swam terrible and they kicked the living hell out of us,” he said. “They really swam well and we did not.”

This is both the Panthers and the Billikens last meet before their respective conference championship tournaments.

The Mid-Continent Conference meet will be held Feb. 16-18 at IUPUI.

The Billikens will have two weeks off giving them time to prepare for the Atlantic 10 conference meet at St. Bonaventure on Feb. 15-18.

For the last home meet of the season there will be a short ceremony where the seniors will be honored for their commitment to the team and program.