The Panthers competed and left the House of Champions meet with new season best times, but ultimately finished near the bottom of the scorecard over the weekend in Indianapolis.

The women’s team finished fifth out of seven teams, while the men finished in last place.

The three-day long meet began Friday when the Eastern swim team swam its way to 23 season-best times.

The men’s team best performance came with a third place finish in the 200-free relay.

Seniors Colin McGill, Dan Enge, Joe Ciliak and junior Adam Jones set a new best time this year of 1:27.35.

Freshmen Kaylee Morris competed in the 50-free, recording a season best time of 24.47.

Morris’ time is also the ninth fastest in school history.

The men’s team was led by McGill as he recorded a new season-best time of 21.85 in the A Finals of the 50-free and finished eighth in the preliminary round.

Although both teams showed some success throughout the day, they came out sluggish head coach Elliott McGill said.

“We came out a little rusty in the morning, but tonight [Friday] we had swimmers make some great adjustments on races,” said McGill. “We were a little inconsistent, which just can’t happen in an invite meet like this.”

One of those adjustments came with another solid performance by senior Hailey Foss.

Foss won the B Final of the 500-free and recorded an in-season personal best time of 5:13.57.

“Hailey had a solid night swim and Mary Lacine also perfumed well in her 200-IM,” McGill said.

The coach also praised the swimming of freshman Conner Conroy and junior Steve Swiercz.

“They both made excellent changes to their race strategies and swam faster tonight (Friday),” McGill said.

Both teams improved on day two of the competition, McGill said.

The Panthers recorded 30 new season best times on Saturday in both individual and relay action.

“Again we had a lot of smart adjustments made in between sessions which led to some significant improvements,” McGill said.

Along with the new season best times, eight individual swimmers advanced in the top finals of the day’s competition.

The duo of Morris and Foss set Eastern Top 10 times in the 100-Back and 400-IM, respectively, during the preliminary rounds.

Morris recorded a time of 1:01.11 while Foss’ top 10 time was 4:44.30.

During the Saturday night session, two Panthers swam their way to fifth place finishes in their finals races.

Second-year swimmer Mackenzie Anderson set a new best time for her season in her fifth place finish, recording a time of 59.11 in the 100-Back, while Enge finished the 100-fly finals at 53.30.

The second day of the meet turned out to be a good one, McGill said, adding he was especially happy with the strong relay races swam by both teams.

The Panthers were led by Conroy on Sunday as the freshman won the B Finals of the 200-fly with a time of 1:59.25.

Olga Livshits finished with the highest place in the finals for the women’s team as the Israel native recorded a time of 2:10.33 in her second-place finish in the B Finals of the 200-back.

McGill has emphasized the importance of improving times as the teams approach the conference meets.

The House of Champions brought a new format this year and with sessions being split in two with preliminary rounds held in the morning and finals raced in the evening, the Panthers got a taste of what it will be like in February.

McGill said the swimmers were fresher after Thanksgiving but added the ultimate goal is to do the best at the end of the year.

“Being a young team, we are doing a good job at learning how to handle a three day meet like this which will only help to benefit us this coming February at our conference meet,” McGill said.

The Panthers return to action on Dec. 15 as they head to Evansville, Ind., starting at 11 a.m.

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or asoto2@eiu.edu.