Brent Noble swam two events he normally does not compete in Friday against Millikin.

He won both.

The junior’s versatility makes him a valuable commodity for the Eastern men’s swimming team.

“Brent’s such a versatile swimmer,” senior team captain Tim O’Hagan said. “He can swim almost any event and be very good at all of them,”

Eastern head coach Ray Padovan said he put Noble in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle Friday so Noble could get some experience in those events.

“Millikin was a little bit weaker of a team, so I wanted to give Brent a chance to swim something different,” Padovan said. “It is nice because he may end up doing one of those events on a relay at the end of the year.”

Padovan said Noble’s versatility is important because it gives the team flexibility in matching up against other teams.

“Sometimes someone will have strength in an area, and we can put Brent in there because he’s good enough to compete even if it’s not where he normally swims,” Padovan said.

That was not the case Friday against Millikin, where Noble was just getting a chance to do something different and Eastern easily won 119-64.

Even against lesser competition, the two wins are productive for Noble.

“Any time you get wins like that it’s a confidence boost,” he said.

O’Hagan said Noble’s confidence is one area that has improved the most since last year. He said the confidence boost has helped Noble’s swimming.

“He’s always had a good attitude,” Padovan said. “Now he’s taking on more of a leadership role. Being a junior, it’s been a natural transition.”

Padovan and O’Hagan point to Noble’s hard work over the summer to explain his growth as a leader.

O’Hagan said he noticed Noble’s change in confidence after he came back from the summer break.

“He practiced really hard over the summer and it shows,” O’Hagan said. “He came back with a lot of confidence and that’s really helped him with his race strategy.”

Padovan said Noble has gotten stronger and also improved in the event he normally swims: the individual medley.

“As an individual medley swimmer you are working with all four strokes, and this summer he improved tremendously in his two weaker strokes: the butterfly and the backstroke,” Padovan said.

Noble said he wants to continue to improve all four strokes.

“I’ve been working on balancing all my strokes to improve my individual medley,” he said.

Although he didn’t get to work on his individual medley against Millikin, Noble’s versatility will be important in the team’s success as the season moves on to bigger meets, and the win over Millikin could provide some momentum for the rest of the season.

Noble said a decisive win like the one against Millikin gave the team a charge.

“The end is just about in sight,” Padovan said. “We’ve got a lot of hard work to do before we get to conference.”

Noble agreed.

“We’re going for conference now,” he said. “Everything we do now is aimed at being fast for conference.”

Micky Deming may be reached at 581-7944 or at jmdeming@eiu.edu.

Brent Noble, junior swimmer, took first place in the 200-freestyle (1:52.45) and 500-freestyle (5:02.75) at last Friday’s meet against Millikin University. Noble has 6 first place finishes in 3 different events this season. (Molly Clutter

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