After a few weeks off of competition, the Eastern men’s and women’s swim teams are ready for their final and most important meet of the season – the Summit League Championships.

The time off has allowed the swimmers to rest and possibly put on a good showing at the conference meet, Eastern swim coach Elliott McGill said.

“We’ve started to really see some kids come around as we’ve rested the last few weeks,” he said. “We are all very confident that we will put up some fast times.”

The men and women each have their own strengths. Both groups have a few swimmers that could potentially take top honors in their respective events. The women have a very deep squad while the men will have to put up some really good times to provide that depth, McGill said.

“For the women, Kate Paige and Kaylee Morris both have a chance to push for some individual all-conference honors,” McGill said. “Overall though, the strength of this team is their depth.”

McGill also expects success from his veteran men swimmers as well as the younger ones.

“For the men, Colin McGill and Harris Thompson are both seeded very high,” McGill said. “However, we are really looking for our younger guys to drop a lot of time to provide some depth in a number of races.”

A lot of the competition Eastern will be facing presents a challenge. Denver entered the Summit League this season, replacing Oakland, which won 14 consecutive conference titles.

“Denver is a very good team,” McGill said. “So Oakland leaving and them coming in won’t really allow for much movement in the standings at the top.”

Despite the strong competition, all the Panthers can control is how well they swim, McGill said.

“At the end of the day, it’s about swimming fast and putting up the times that are needed,” he said.

Eastern is already at a disadvantage to many of the teams in the Summit League as the Panthers do not include diving in their competition repertoire. The need for extra points in the pool will be a great incentive for the Panthers.

“If we are going to jump over any other teams in the standings, we have to take care of business in the pool first,” McGill said. “We already know not having diving will set us back 50 to 80 points, so our squads are even more eager to show what we have in the pool to try to make up those points.”

The Summit League Championships will get started on Wednesday and will come to a close on Saturday in Indianapolis.

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