The Eastern swimming team will be in Indianapolis this weekend for the two-day House of Champions Swimming Invitational.

The House of Champions Invitational will be hosted by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. on Saturday. Other participants in the seven-team invitational are Ball State, Xavier, Butler, Western Illinois and Ohio Wesleyan.

This is the first time this invite has been held since 2008.

“I’m not quite sure what other teams are going to be there, but the competition is high, though,” said junior Mike Lacine.

The Panthers had a hard time finishing at their last meet against the University of Illinois-Chicago due to an increased load at practice.

“We definitely were broken down from last meet,” Lacine said.

Sophomore Josh Miller felt the soreness during the match and it showed. “I swam my slowest on the breast time than I have in four years,” Miller said.

“We had a mini-rest for this meet, we knocked down the yardage and worked more on strength and speed,” junior Michael Bower said.

Bower said they should have many fast times due to the rest and practice the last couple of weeks.

“I just don’t want to lose to Western, and to beat IUPUI in the dual meets,” Bower said.

Miller said IUPUI will be a tough team to beat, due to the size differences between them and Eastern.

Miller shares that a couple of his friends swim for IUPUI, sophomores Alexander Nunnelly and John Van Dyke. He explains that it is a friendly rivalry between his friends and that it would be nice to out swim them this weekend for bragging rights.

This invitational goes by championship scoring which is different from others.

“It is better for us because we have less swimmers,” Lacine said.

Both the men’s and women’s teams are each seeking their first wins, both holding records of 0-3.

Nick Blankenship can be reached at 581-7942

or nrblankenship@eiou.edu.