During Family Weekend, the Eastern swimming program will hold its annual Blue-Gray meet, which will take place at 6 p.m. today at the Ray Padovan Pool.

The Blue-Gray is an intrasquad meet. The event will be the second Blue-Gray meet Eastern head swimming coach Matt Bos has been part of, after taking over at the beginning of last season after former head coach Ray Padovan retired. Heading into the event, Bos has been preparing the teams by holding practices six days a week for a total of 20 hours.

Both squads have been practicing since Sept. 1, and the scheduling of the Blue-Gray meet serves as a warm-up for the beginning of the regular season.

“For the past four weeks it has really been somewhat of a grind for us to get everybody’s minds and bodies back to the condition we want them to be in,” Bos said. “We put this meet at this certain point in the season because we now have five weeks behind us going into Friday. At this point in the season, the meet provides a break from training and it allows us (coaching staff) to understand where everyone is at mentally and physically.”

Bos said the weeks of practice leading up to the Blue-Gray meet seem to have progressed both squads further than they were at this point last season.

“Right now, everything is really about conditioning and getting people aerobically back to where we want them to be,” Bos said. “I think we are in a lot better shape right now than we were at this time last year.”

Bos said this year’s Blue-Gray meet has more of a feel of an actual meet with times being thoroughly kept and there will be actual officials working the swim meet.

Senior Lauren Zillmer said since Bos has taken control of the Blue-Gray meet, he has really tried to create a competitive atmosphere about the event.

“In the past I don’t think that people might have taken the meet as seriously,” Zillmer said. “Coach has really turned the meet into an event. In the past, the meet was kind of a way just to see where our times were at, but now it is much more of a big deal.”

Neil Schneider can be reached at 581-7944 or jnschneider@eiu.edu.