An old saying in sports is that games are not won on paper.

The Eastern men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will be praying for that adage to hold true this weekend. The Panthers, along with five other schools, will be battling the proverbial “goliath” of Oakland University at the Mid-Continent Conference tournament at IU Natatorium on the IUPUI campus. Sports Illustrated ranked the IU Natatorium “the No. 1 college swimming facility in the nation.”

“Oakland is just head and shoulders above everybody else in the conference,” said head coach Ray Padovan.

Oakland’s dominance is apparent due to the seeds. Swimmers are seeded based on their season best performances in every event they have swam. Oakland has the top seed in every individual event and every relay. In many cases, Oakland swimmers have the top three or more seeds. In the men’s 100-yard freestyle Oakland has the top 8 seeds.

“I have been joking with my teammates that we should score the meet ourselves not including Oakland,” junior Bill Senese said. “That way I think we could win.”

Their success is not without reasons. Oakland swimming is a highly-funded program with top-notch facilities. When compared to Eastern’s program, Oakland has one major advantage: scholarships. Oakland has seven times the amount of scholarships that Eastern has, which allows them to lure in some of the best swimmers in the country.

“It is unfortunate for (Oakland) that they have to be in a conference like the Mid-Con,” Padovan said. “But conferences are formed around basketball and football. The prestige of a swim program is usually not taken into account.”

The Panthers will not be backing down from the competition and they have a few high seeded swimmers themselves.

Senese has been one of the Panthers best and most consistent swimmers throughout the season. He is seeded second in the 50-yard freestyle and third in the 200-yard backstroke. Claire Garvey and Patty Young are the highest seeds for the women. Garvey is ranked fourth in the 1650-yard freestyle and Young is also fourth for 200-yard breaststroke.

Eastern relay squads are also very highly ranked. With the exception of the women’s 200-yard freestyle team, all of the Panther relay teams are either seeded second or third out of the seven teams competing in the tournament.

This will be Eastern’s first time competing in the Mid-Con tournament and the conference is happy to see them involved.

“We are very excited that Eastern and South Dakota State joined the Mid-Con and will be represented in our conference tournament this year,” said Mid-Con Director of Media Relations Kristina Petersen. “We are always happy to have more athletes and more competition for the conference.”

The set up of the conference tournament is unlike any of the other meets the Panthers have swam in this season. Only 18 swimmers will be allowed to participate and teams are allowed to bring four other swimmers designated as exhibition competitors. Exhibition competitors are only allowed to compete in time trials and preliminary heats.

The 18-swimmer limit is somewhat confusing. According to the rules of the conference, divers are only counted as one-third of a participant so Eastern’s six-member diving squad will only count as two competitors. Including the divers and the exhibition competitors, Eastern will have a total of 26 swimmers at the tournament.

Swimmers will be allowed to compete in more than the usual four events. They can swim in three individual races and four relays. Medals will be given to the top three finishers.

“I am more looking for us to put up career best and season best times than to win every race,” Padovan said. “I will be happy if we can do that.”