The Eastern women’s swimming team returns to the water this week to prepare for its weekend meet at Valparaiso after getting its first dual meet win against Millikin on Friday.

Preparation will be focused this week on lowering individual and relay times for the Summit League conference meet at Oakland from Feb. 21-23. The team will look for some individuals to step up in practice.

“(The win) boosted our self-esteem since we won,” sophomore Lauren Zillmer said. “(Friday’s meet) was just about racing the clock since we knew we were going to win. Hopefully (sophomore) Emily Immel (freestyle), (freshman) Alyssa Lehman (backstroke) and (freshman) Laura Gibson (butterfly) will all step up in practice for their events.”

The team started its season with losses against Illinois-Chicago, Evansville, Western Illinois and at Ball State and Saint Louis.

“We have had a tough season and won against tough teams (in the Panther Invitational),” senior Holly Hooe said. “We were training very hard, so I think the win will give us momentum for the meets up until conference.”

The team will also look for the seniors to step it up during the last part of the season and to be strong going into conference.

“I would say Patty (Young) and Mollye Shanel have been working hard,” Hooe said. “Jen Beresheim has also been strong in her event, and of course Mollye and Patty will be strong in theirs. If this happens, we’ll all be strong as a team for the rest of the year.”

Shanel recently improved her times in the 200-yard IM with a season best time of 2:19.30 and won the 100-yard freestyle (59.81) against Millikin.

Nicole Srutowski pursues Nursing

The team will be without freestyler Nicole Srutowski, who is pursuing nursing school. Srutowski, a junior, helped Eastern capture both the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relays at the Panther Invitational on Nov. 2 with times of 1:41.30 and 3:40.07, respectively. She will be swimming but not competing for the team.

“She’s not going to be around; she’s busy with nursing school,” Zillmer said. “I’m upset because she’s not going to be around in practice for freestyle, but hopefully she’ll be back next year.”

Shanel said other swimmers have stepped up in the freestyle relays to replace Srutowski.

Summit League Championship approaching

The team finished first in 12-of-13 scoring events against Millikin, and even though the meet was against a Division III school, the team has several positives going into the final stretch of meets before the conference meet.

“We have seven senior girls this year and the underclassmen will have to step up,” Hooe said. “Last year we had Brittany Wininger and Marlise Davidson, but I think that this year we’ll have to work well together as a team do well in conference. Our team is evenly spread out. We have a good assortment of swimmers, and we have a couple of standout swimmers.”

Ross Meister may be reached at 581-7944 or at rwmeister@eiu.edu.