The men’s and women’s swim team swam in their final meet of the season on Saturday with the women coming away victorious over Valparaiso 149-113, while the men lost just by 12 points, 137-125.

The women’s team came away with eight first place finishes while the men took six first place finishes. Senior Brogan O’Doherty said that the team was tired at the beginning of the meet but ultimately put in a great effort and wanted to win the meet.

Junior Shamus Shields said that the team knew that it would be a close meet.

O’Doherty had four first place finishes, two in the relays and in the 100-yard backstroke and in the 50-yard backstroke.

O’Doherty had a time of 52.26 and 24.06 respectively. He teamed up with junior Matt Jacobs, junior Patrick Wood, and sophomore Nick Harkins in the 200-yard medley relay for a time of 1:37.59. In the 400-yard freestyle relay, the team of Harkins, O’Doherty, junior Jennings Soccorso-McCoy, and junior Bryan McPherson had a time of 3:12.00.

O’Doherty said that he wanted to end the last meet of the season on a high note.

“It felt great to win all of my races,” O’Doherty said. “I was very happy to see my hard work paying off. But it would have felt much better if we could pulled out the team victory.”

Also winning multiple events for the men was Jacobs. Jacobs won the 50-yard breaststroke and the 100-yard breaststroke with times of 27.19 and 58.50 respectively.

Shields said that in this last meet, despite the loss, the team put a lot of heart into it and is pumped up for conference.

The women had three swimmers that had two wins in their events.

Sophomore Lauren Oostman took first place finishes in 50-yard backstroke and the 100-yard backstroke with times of 28.72 and 1:00.90 respectively. Senior Fallyn Schwake had times of 2:02.65 in the 200-yard freestyle and a time of 5:23.23 in the 500-yard freestyle.

Junior Dani DiMatteo took home the 50-yard feestyle and the 100-Individual Medley. DiMatteo had times of 25.49 and 1:01.34, which was a record breaker.

Senior Paige Eavenson had a time of 1:02.39 in the 100-yard butterfly while right behind her was freshman Karleen Gernady with a time of 1:03.26. Gernady won the 400-individual medley with a time of 4:50.46.

In the relay events, the women took second and third in the 200-yard medley with the team of Oostman, DiMatteo, freshman Rachel Manderscheid, and sophomore Martee Grainger taking second with a time of 1:54.25. and the team following behind with a time of 1:59.44 consisted  of junior Niki Beringer, Eavenson, freshman Julia Martin, and sophomore Caro LaMarque.

Taking second and third in the 400-yard freestyle was the team of Martin, freshman Gloria Gonzales, DiMatteo, and Grainger, and the team of Shwake, Gernady, freshman Jaelyn Williams, and freshman Kailey Adcock with times of 3:49.34 and 3:56.26 respectively.

The Panthers have a couple weeks off until their conference meet, which is Feb. 15-18.

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