The Eastern men’s and women’s swim teams hosted Valparaiso on Saturday at Padovan Pool where both picked up their first wins on the year. They combined for 14 first-place finishes.

The men won by a score of 137-122, and the women won by a score of 162-95.

The victories improved the men’s record to 1-2 on the year and the women’s to 1-3.

It was also coach Jacqueline Michalski’s first win as head coach of the Panthers. She did it without the usual help of assistant coach Rachel McGrath.

“It was wonderful to see the team come together today for our first win of the season for both teams,” said Michalski. “It was my privilege to have my first win as a college coach be with such a great group of student-athletes.”

The Panthers got off to a very fast start with the women winning the 400-medley relay and the men following right after to win their 400-medley relay.

The women’s team consisted of freshman Amy Smith, junior Kelsey Ferguson, freshman Danielle DiMatteo, and junior Kaylee Morris. The women finished with a time of 4:06.33.

The Panthers also took second place in the race.

On the men’s side the team of sophomore Brogan O’Doherty, freshman Matt Jacobs, freshman Patrick Wood, and freshman Steve Fishman. The men finished with a tie of 3:36.47, winning by eight seconds.

Junior Jake Roberts won his 1000-freestyle with a time of 10:18.03. Roberts was followed by fellow junior Kyle Ruckert with a time of 10:27.94 in second and junior Austin Parrish with a time of 10:40.60 in third place.

The Panthers also saw first and second place finishes in the women’s 200-freestyle from senior Nikki Peck in first with a time of 2:03.92 and junior Beth Houghton right behind her with time of 2:03.98.

The men also had a first and second finish in the 200-freestyle with Fishman coming in first with a time of 1:45.25, and sophomore Harris Thompson in second with a time of 1:45.86

The women had three freshman come in first, second and third in the 100-backstroke. In first was Smith, coming in second was Niki Beringer, and in third was DiMatteo.

Michalski likes to see all the swimmers improving in their races, and one swimmer who is doing that is Morris in her 50 and 100-freestyles.

Michalski said that she keeps dropping times, which is really good.

Another race that stood out to Michalski was the men’s 200-individual medley where they had Fishman finish in first with a time of 2:00.06 and junior Dylan Ferguson right behind him with a time of 2:02.14.

The team changed up how they approached the race hoping that it could contribute to a win.

“We changed up how we approached the meet a little bit. They couldn’t sit down, they needed to be a little more engaged,” Michalski said. “We tried to get them more active with each other.”

Michalski also contributes the teams’ success to how much they were supporting each other throughout the meet.

Some swimmers also had to step up and get some wins that usually don’t have that much pressure on them.

Overall, Michalski was happy with how everything went in the meet. She said there was really no race that she was dissatisfied about.

The next time the Panthers will be swimming will be at the House of Champions hosted by IUPUI in Indianapolis. The meets will stretch from Friday through Sunday this coming weekend.

Sean Hastings can be reached at 581-2812 or smhastings@eiu.edu.