Eastern’s swimming teams head into Indianapolis for the Summit League Championships, their final and most important meet of the season.

After more than one week of rest, the team is looking stronger, according to head coach Matt Bos, even if some of the swimmers do not necessarily feel their best yet.

“It comes in different stages for everybody,” Bos said Thursday. “I think overall we’re about where we want to be at this point. Pretty much all the work’s been done here, it’s just trying to keep people mentally focused on things and not letting how they feel in the water dictate how they’re going to perform.”

The four-day championship meet will begin tonight, as the Panthers travel over to Indianapolis this morning, do a little warming up, and then the meet will splash off with a relay tonight before the individual events begin tomorrow morning.

Eastern’s swimmers have had experience in the home pool of the Indiana University/Purdue University-Indianapolis Jaguars, where the meet will be held. The Panthers have taken part in two meets in this season alone, and Bos said being familiar with the facilities of IUPUI is an added bonus.

“We’re definitely familiar with that facility, all the returning people have been in there multiple times each of the last couple years,” Bos said. “We’re comfortable in there, so it’s definitely a bonus to walk into a place and feel like it’s a familiar place.”

Bos said his primary focus over the past week has been keeping his team focused and healthy, making sure they’re ready for the next four days.

“(We’re) just trying to keep people mentally where they need to be as far as staying focused on the meet, taking care of all their school stuff,” Bos said. “Just overall take care of their bodies, make sure they’re getting sleep and that we stay healthy here.”

The meet’s schedule will begin tonight with the 800-Free relay for the men and the women, and individual events will begin tomorrow, following the 200-Medley relay.

Tomorrow’s slate will then conclude with a 200-Free relay. Friday will feature more individual events capped off by the 400-Medley relay and on Saturday the meet will be finished off with a 400-Free relay.

Brad Kupiec can be reached at 581-7944 or bmkupiec@eiu.edu