The Eastern swim teams will start their seasons on the road at IUPUI.

The men will face IUPUI, while the women will take on both IUPUI and Butler.

Last season, the women’s team saw four swimmers reach the top-10 in the rankings all-time at Eastern.

Sophomore Lauren Oostman broke Eastern’s record in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:03.32. Oostman said that she is feeling better than she did last year.

“I’ve been doing a lot better at practices than I was last year,” Oostman said. “I’ve just been getting a lot better at practices, a lot better times in practice. So I’m feeling a lot better.”

Oostman said she has been working on the backstroke every day and wants to break not only the 100-backstroke record this year but her own record in the 200-backstroke from last year.

Oostman started her season with an illness last year, and it took her little time to come back and prepare for the rest of the season.

She eventually finished third place in the record books on Eastern’s list for the 100 backstroke with a time of 57.61 seconds.

Senior Paige Eavenson earned fifth place all-time in the 200 fly with a 2:11.4 time.

Junior Danielle DiMatteo finished with a time of 58.25 in the 100 fly, which earned her fourth place in the school’s history.

Senior Fallyn Schwake finished the 1650 free with a time of 17:44.76 and also finished with a time of 5:14.45 in the 500 free, earning her fourth and sixth place, respectively.

Junior Patrick Wood said the meet will see where everyone is and see where there needs to be improvements.

“If we all improve ourselves, then we’ll improve as a team,” Wood said.

Wood said in this meet, he wants to put up numbers to see where he is at.

“I’m just trying to go out there and see what I can put up to see where I’m at,” Wood said. “Just race people and have fun and see how fast I can go to see if I need to improve or anything like that.”

Wood said going faster and placing better than last season are season goals for him.

The men’s team only has two seniors on the team. The men have 15 swimmers returning. Wood said the team is coming together and thinks it will be a great year.

Junior Brandon Robbins set two school records last season in the 100 breast and the 200 breast with times of 56.82 and 2:04.57.

Junior Matt Jacobs received third all-time with the 200 breast with a time of 2:05.65 and fourth all-time in the 100 breast with a time of 57.24.

Senior Brogan O’Doherty set a school record in the 200 back with a time of 1:50.19 and holds the second-best time in the 100 back with a 49.56 time.

Junior Steve Fishman holds the fourth best record in the 200 back with a time of 1:50.80.

Fishman also earned the sixth best 100 back time with 51.26 and is eighth in the 50 free with 21.20.

The meet is at the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis at 6 p.m.

Tyler McCluskey can be reached at 581-2812 or trmccluskey@eiu.edu.