Last year, Bill Senese seemed to be the automatic first place for the men’s swim team.

He graduated.

Now the team has to turn to its returning starters and upcoming freshmen to fill the void.

“Any time you lose someone of Senese’s caliber, he’ll be missed,” Eastern head men’s swimming coach Ray Padovan said. “We can cover (the loss of Senese) up with more depth. Some new guys won’t be as fast (starting out). With the men’s team, there’s a lot of solid balance, so we don’t have the superstars, yet we’re still a solid team.”

This season, junior Joe Ethington, junior Brent Noble and freshman Matt Scaliatine have filled that void Senese left.

“This year is similar with what we had done last year, which is shorter freestyle. We’re also getting good in butterfly,” Padovan said. “Scaliatine has been good in breaststroke. (Sophomore Matt) Crittenden is looking good early. Noble is swimming a lifetime best swim early in the season, and a number of our returning people have come back ready to swim because that is what it is going to take.”

Men’s swimming off to slow start

The men’s swim team has had a 1-2 start to its season with a win at IUPUI 169-129 and has dropped its last two meets to Ball State and Illinois-Chicago. The team looks to even its record against Evansville at 1 p.m. Oct. 27. Padovan was not concerned with his team’s performance thus far.

“Actually, I have been happy; we’ve won (a meet) and are 1-2,” Padovan said. “We have a lot of young people on our men’s team and (we) also have a lot more depth. We don’t have a superstar, but we’re a nice, solid team.”

Young swimmers step up early in season

In the season opener against Indiana-Purdue-Indianpolis, the team’s young core stepped up.

Scaliatine finished in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2 minutes, 15.26 seconds, and freshman Nathan Moritz finished in the 200-meter butterfly (2:04.39). Scaliatine also had victories in the 200-meter breaststroke (2:14.46) against Ball State and in the 100-meter breaststroke (1:02.39) against UIC.

“Scaliatine has really done a great job,” Padovan said. “(Freshman) Caleb Arthur has shown some real nice things. (Freshmen) Jayson Shine, Nathan Moritz and Cody Showers have been pleasant surprises, too.”

Also in last week’s meet at UIC, the relay team of Ethington, Arthur, Crittenden and Shine won the 200-meter freestyle relay in 1:28.82.