The Eastern men’s and women’s swimming teams ended their weekend without a win as the men fell to IUPUI on Friday 72-36, while the women lost 80-30.

On Saturday the Panthers swam in a double-dual meet with the University of Illinois-Chicago and IUPUI. The men dropped both meets, losing 138-65 to the Flames and 151-53 to IUPUI.

The Panther women also came up empty-handed losing 139-65 to the Flames and 144-60 to the Jaguars.

The meet on Friday consisted of 14 events with the Panthers winning one. Eastern senior Colin McGill won the 50-yard backstroke for the Panthers.

On Saturday, Eastern had a tough time coming up with a win in any events. After 22 events, neither the men nor the women had any first-place finishes.

Eastern coach Elliot McGill said he expected a fast meet. He was very pleased with the teams’ heart and effort throughout the meets.

“This was the fastest meet ever at Ray Padovan Pool,” McGill said. “The fight us and UIC and IUPUI showed in every event was awesome. Even though we came up short on the points, we showed a heck of a lot of heart.”

McGill said he does not want to look at the outcomes of these meets as losses. He said the teams put together some good performances and the teams this year would be beating the Eastern teams of the past.

“I don’t look at it as we are building off of losses,” he said. “We are building off of some really solid performances for us right now. Both teams right now would just decimate our teams from last year. We are going to challenge the kids to build off of that, not off of a loss.”

The teams will be preparing hard during the next two weeks for the meet against Evansville, McGill said.

“Our skills are sharp, our stroke lengths are solid, and the effort is there,” McGill said. “From here we’ve got two weeks of some hard and fast training and two weeks of prep work going into our mid-season invite. Nothing gets you faster in swimming other than swimming fast in practice. That’s what the next two weeks will be about.”

Currently on the season, the men stand at 0-4 with losses against Saint Louis, Illinois-Chicago and two against IUPUI. The women stand at 1-4, losing to the same teams as the men and winning one against Butler.

With no meet next week, the Panthers will get back to action on Nov. 9 with a home meet against Evansville.

Dan Hildebrandt can be reached at 581-2812 or djhildebrandt@eiu.edu.