Virtually any coach in any sport will say they want to have a deep group of young talent to lead their team toward a bright future.

With that being said, the future of the Eastern men’s swimming certainly looks bright. With a 2009 recruiting class of six prep standouts, the swim squad has added depth, size and talent to its repertoire and should be competitive in the Summit League for years.

Among the six prep standouts head coach Matt Bos now has on his squad are freshmen Daniel Enge, Mike Lacine, Mike Lehman, Colin McGill, Ken Tiltges, and John Wilson. All bring talent to the squad and have already seen some success so far this season.

“Everybody in the recruiting class has done well so far,” Bos said. “The size and talent of that class is great.”

Two of the more experienced swimmers coming out of the recruiting class are Tiltges and Wilson.

“Those two guys are very accomplished,” Bos said.

One of the biggest editions to the recruiting class, at least so far this season, has been Tiltges. He comes from the St. Charles swim team.

He was a high school All-American, All-State performer, a Junior National qualifier and captain of his high school swim team.

Another future star of Eastern swimming may be Wilson from Carl Sandburg High School and the Palos Orland Swim Association.

Wilson is a nine-time high school All-American and finished fifth at the IHSA state meet as a senior at Carl Sandburg High School.

With so much young talent to complement a large group of experienced veterans on the team, the sky’s the limit for this Eastern swim squad as far as the future goes. When a team receives more talent, it is only natural that higher goals will be set.

“We definitely want to beat Western in our dual meet this year, we can still remember the feeling we had walking away that night after losing to them last year,” said junior freestyle swimmer Tim Mathieu.

It is obvious the squad feels optimistic about its 2009 campaign, and for this reason, there is no reason to believe the Panthers will not be successful this year.

They’ve added depth, while keeping a solid core of experience to balance things out.

With all the weapons Bos has on his squad this year, including a strong new recruiting class, the Panthers should be able to improve upon their third place finish last year at the Summit League Championships, and should continue their success for quite some time.

Kevin Maras can be reached at 581-7944 or kjmaras@eiu.edu.