With Eastern’s homecoming taking place this weekend, the Eastern men’s and women’s swimming programs have decided to hold their first-ever alumni swim meet at 9 a.m. Sunday at the Ray Padovan Pool in Lantz Arena.

Swimming head coach Matt Bos said the event will feature up to 18 returning alumni swimmers and will be conducted just like a regular meet with times and scores counted.

Bos, a 2000 Eastern graduate, said the idea of an alumni swim meet was originally started by former Eastern head swimming coach Ray Padovan, but it was never formally organized until now.

“They never did an actual meet. They had groups come in and have a barbeque or something like that, but they never had the alumni actually swimming,” Bos said. “This is the first time that we are getting some of the alumni back to actually swim and watch our current swimmers perform.”

Bos said the opportunity to bring back alumni and let them interact with current swimmers was an opportunity he believed the Eastern swimming program couldn’t pass up.

“Getting the alumni back and getting them involved with the current swimmers was something really big for me,” Bos said. “Some of the current Eastern swimmers might have heard names or stories about certain swimmers, so it is good to allow the current swimmers to know the face that goes along with the name.”

Bos, in his second year as head swimming coach, said one of the main driving points for creating the alumni swim meet was to allow both the alumni and current swimmers to learn from each others’ experiences, considering the alumni had a different coach (Padovan) than the current swimmers.

“From an athletic standpoint, it’s good because it allows the alumni to share stories with current swimmers, while the current swimmers can share their experiences about swimming with me as their coach,” Bos said.

Nick Schmidt, who swam from 1997 to 2001 for Eastern, said current swimmers will benefit from the alumni swim meet through the understanding that their connection with the swimming program extends further than just their time on campus.

“The current swimmers will be able to understand the connection that we all have and that it remains strong beyond our time at EIU,” Schmidt said. “Plus, they will learn that we (alumni) are the ones that can continue to help improve this program.”

Matt Latham, who swam from 2004 to 2008 for Eastern, said going into the alumni swim meet, he simply wants to be able to complete a race.

“I pretty much just want to finish a race. It’s been about five months since I actually swam, so I just want to be able to finish a race,” Latham said.

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

Eastern sophomore Rich Waszak competes in the 200-yard freestyle event during the Blue vs. Gray intrasquad meet at Ray Padovan Pool. The Panther swimming program is hosting an alumni meet at 9 a.m. Sunday. (Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News)

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