The Eastern men and women’s swimming team return to practice this week after the disappointing placing this past weekend where the women captured sixth place with a score of 198 points while the men had 361 points. In a meet that was dominated primarily by a Ball State powerhouse team, there was no individual from the Panthers who finished with a first or second place score.

“We’re going to work hard this week,” senior Tim O’Hagan said. “It was a tough meet, and we didn’t swim as well as we thought we would. We’re going to do as well as we can.”

Preparing for the second-half of the season

The team now prepares to practice and prepares for the second half of the season by traveling to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. to train and compete at the end of the trip. Endurance seemed to be a problem on both sides of the team in the two-day meet this weekend.

“We’re going to get back our endurance and strength,” O’Hagan said. “We need to recover from what we lost and get ready for the training trip in December. There’s a meet at the end of the trip against the other teams in the country. The trip is nine days long so we’re hoping to perform really well at the invite.”

Senior Jen Beresheim agreed with O’Hagan that the Panthers were not at full strength at the House of Champions and knows the team must prepare fully.

“We are working on endurance, our whole team was tired this past weekend,” Beresheim said. “Hopefully (head coach) Ray (Padovan) will work on sprints and in the long events. We really need to work on our longer events, since a vast majority of us had bad times in the long events.”

In the second half, all members of the team are expected to continue to develop and improve their times.

Athletes to watch

“I hope a whole bunch of them will step up. We have several guys who are right on the edge. One swimmer is (freshman) Bret Starkey in the breast stroke that has stepped up,” Padovan said. “There’s several new key people on both sides that will need to keep developing along with our regulars.”

Other individuals including some of the freshmen as well as upperclassmen need to step up to insure a strong finish for the second half of the season.

“We’re looking forward to (freshman) Cody Showers, he’s been good in two events. (Freshman) Jayson Shine has had a rocky season, he sprained his ankle during our dryland practice but he’s getting back now,” O’Hagan said. “They will be key for the rest of the season. (Junior) Pat LeNeave had a good meet this past weekend and junior Brent Noble needs to stay consistent to keep dropping off time.”

“(Sophomores) Laura Nilsen and Lauren Zillmer hands down will be dropping times,” Beresheim said. “Alyssa Lehman hasn’t hit her goal times yet but they all will do awesome. (Senior) Patty Young has also had a great season and will continue to do well. (Senior) Jamie Lelo has amazed everyone by dropping times from meet to meet.”