Swimming has been a sport on the rise the past two seasons under Eastern head swim coach Matt Bos.

After taking over for longtime coach Ray Padovan, Bos led the men’s and women’s teams to a 4-6 season in 2008-2009 and third and fifth place finishes in the Summit League Championship.

For Bos’ teams, it was about breaking records. Ten women’s records and seven men’s records were destroyed this season, which the coach said he thinks is incredible.

“We’re probably one of the few teams that broke this many records when the (technological) suits were removed,” Bos said. “Ninety-two percent of conference records were broken last year. For us to come out this year when the suits were banned and break all the records we did was a nice touch.”

One of those records was the 200-yard butterfly (1:54.33) broken by junior Nate Moritz, who snapped his uncle’s old record. Moritz passed his uncle’s record – the oldest men’s record – with a time of 1:53.8.

At the beginning of each year, Bos sits down with each swimmer and makes individual goals with them. He said he stacked the relay teams with the best women’s swimmers, while the men’s teams had younger athletes competing.

“We don’t set out to break records but we just want people to swim faster,” Bos said. “It has a lot to do with hard work and getting good individuals in here that were willing to work hard and push each other in training.”

This year also saw the men’s freshmen emerge. Among them is Joe Ciliak, who was a late walk-on. Bos said he will be integral to the men’s team for years.

Freshman Ken Tiltges was named Newcomer of the Meet at the Summit League Championship for winning the 100-yard free with 46.03.

This season, both team’s had stronger meet seasons. The men’s squad finished 6-2 in the meet season, while the women moved to 5-3.

One major accomplishment for the 2009-2010 campaigns was both squads defeating Saint Louis University, twice. The Panthers have not sunk the Billikens since the 2003-2004 season.

For the Summit League Championship in Indianapolis, Ind., the men’s team placed third, out of second place by five points to Centenary.

However, Bos said his men would have gotten second if the 400-yard medley relay were not disqualified.

The women also placed fifth but Bos said the women’s side lacks depth, while the women had top performers like seniors Lauren Zillmer and Laura Nielsen anchoring the team.

“We finished fifth this year but the race is so much tighter second to fifth place,” Bos said. “We are looking from this year to last year and the placing is closer.”

For next year, Bos said he wants the women to move up the standings. Also, he has more goals for the men.

“We want to get more competitive in the conference,” Bos said. “For the guys, we disqualified in a relay. If we didn’t disqualify in that relay, we would have been second in the conference. Our goal is we are a solid second place next year, slowly gain on Oakland and get some NCAA cuts.”

Bob Bajek can be reached at 581-7944 or rtbajek@eiu.edu.

Junior Cody Showers eyes the finish of a lap during practice Thursday in the Padovan Pool in Lantz Arena.(Jordan Boner/The Daily Eastern News)

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