The Eastern men’s and women’s swimming squads were defeated by scores of 152-108 and 138-121 on Saturday by Illinois-Chicago at Ray Padovan Pool. With the loss, the

Eastern men fall to 1-1 on the season, while the women slip to 0-2. Despite the losses, the Panthers found success by finishing first in 10 events, with the women winning seven and the men winning three.

Eastern swimming head coach Matt Bos said he was impressed with the way both squads competed against the Flames.

“We competed really well,” Bos said. “We looked a little bit flat in a few areas, which could be the result of training and being tired.”

On the women’s side, the Panthers placed first in the 200-yard medley relay, while also winning the 200-yard free relay. In individual events, Eastern senior Laura Nilsen took first place in both the 100-yard back stroke and 200-yard individual medley.

Eastern freshman breaststroke swimmer Kelli Dicanio also took first place in both the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events.

Bos said Dicanio seems to be developing and improving with each swim meet.

“(Dicanio) is just continuing to have a lot of momentum and swim really well for us,” Bos said.

Bos said he was especially pleased with the way the women’s side competed.

“Overall, there were a lot of bright spots on the women’s side,” Bos said. “We lost a girl to illness today, so I think that if we had everyone at full strength we could have made things real interesting.”

On the Eastern men’s side, freshman Joe Ciliak finished first in the men’s 100-yard breast stroke, while fellow freshman John Wilson was able to win in the men’s 50-yard freestyle.

Junior Matt Scaliatine said he was impressed by the performance of Wilson.

“I think we were especially strong in our sprint freestyle with both John Wilson and Ken Tiltges,” Scaliatine said.

Eastern senior Tim Mathieu said the men’s side was very productive in their sprint events.

“I think in the last 200-meter free relay we showed what were capable of,” Mathieu said.

Bos said even though they lost both meets, he was pleased to see that there were improvements being made from the first meet of the season into Saturday’s meet.

“We worked on little things during the week and we certainly got better with them, but we are not quite where we need to be,” Bos said.

The Eastern swimming teams’ next meet is 1 p.m. Saturday against Western Illinois at Ray Padovan Pool.

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