With the fall semester coming to a close, the men’s and women’s swimming seasons have reached about the halfway point.

Midway through the season, the men’s squad is sitting at a 2-2 record, while the women’s squad is 1-3 on the year.

After dual losses at Ball State, in which the Cardinals defeated both squads, the Eastern swimmers must now regroup, train and prepare for the upcoming second part of the season.

“We’ve got a lot of heavy training coming up,” junior freestyle swimmer Tim Mathieu said.

The second half of the season includes a trip to Florida for the Bob Mowerson Sprint meet in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and other big contests against schools such as Western Illinois and Valparaiso.

The first half

The Panthers came into this season with a good recruiting class for both the men and the women.

The Eastern men’s swimming program picked up an honor from collegeswimming.com, as the first recruiting class of Eastern head coach Matt Bos earned recognition by the online organization.

Eastern was listed as one of 22 top collegiate squads with ‘recruiting classes of note’, marking the first-time the Panthers have earned such a designation in program history.

The men’s team came out of the gates strong this season with a 153-109 win against Evansville at Ray Padovan Pool.

Even with a slight setback versus Illinois-Chicago, the Eastern men and women both swam well, recording 41 top-three finishes.

Perhaps the highlight of the first half for both squads was the win against Saint Louis on Nov. 20.

The Panthers broke a winless streak against SLU as Eastern had not defeated the Billikens since their 2001 campaign, not to mention it was the women’s first win of the season.

“The first win was awesome,” senior freestyle swimmer Lauren Zillmer. “We were just excited to go out there and race.”

Second-Half preview

The Panthers start the second half of their season with a trip to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., during winter break, the swim team will engage in the Bob Mowerson Meet on January 5.

“We’re taking a trip to Florida over break to train. After that, we have a lot of dual meets and it will be exciting to win,” Mathieu said.

After the Florida trip, both squads will have an exciting ride over the rest of the season while facing some tough opponents including Western Illinois, Valparaiso and some rematches against Ball State and Saint Louis.

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

Freshman Mike Lacine participates in the 100-yard backstroke during the meet against Evansville on Oct. 24 at Ray Padovan Pool. (Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News)

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