The Eastern men’s and women’s swim have been preparing for the teams’ Summit League Championship since the start of the season.

Since their last meet on Jan. 28 against Valparaiso, the first week after the practices were intense and full of heavy lifting. Last week things started to slow down for the team only lifting twice and reduced weight. Senior Brogan O’Doherty said that in the pool the yards have been greatly reduced.

“We’re still going fast and still sprinting but the amount of rest that you get in between each round of whatever it may be in practice, is significantly up,” O’Doherty said. “The intensity is still there but we get more rest, which is good.”

Core strength is a main focus for when swimmers get into the weight room. O’Doherty said that it is the most important part of any stroke. The power of the kick in your legs comes from the core and the legs, so in the weight room, O’Doherty said that the focus is on not only on core, but legs too by doing squats and medicine ball throws.

O’Doherty said that an early season goal this season was to be consistent.

“Last season, I think my best time was a 51-mid and my slowest was a 54. That’s a pretty big difference in time,” O’Doherty said.

This season O’Doherty mostly was in the 200-backstroke and 100-backstroke along with relay races the 200-freestyle and medley. Throughout the season, O’Doherty averaged a time of 51.9 seconds in the 100-backstroke and in the 200-backstroke he averaged a time of 2:00.86.

“This year, I wanted to come in, regardless if I beat my best time from last year already, I wanted to stay as consistant as I could,” O’Doherty said. “I think I’ve done a pretty good job of that.”

O’Doherty set his goal to keep the 100-backstroke under 53 seconds this season. His fastest time in the event came against 51.18 against Evansville, which came at the Padovan Pool on Nov. 11. His slowest time was 52.26, which came against the second meeting against Valparaiso on Jan. 28. in both events he won both events. In the last meet, O’Doherty swept his events and O’Doherty said that it gives him confidence going into the Summit League Championships.

“Being able to win all these events in dual meets is awesome but it’s challenging going form dual meets where I usually win all of my events,” O’Doherty said.

“Going to conference where the competition is tougher, there is a lot more teams and there is a lot more people. So expecting to go in and sweep all of my events isn’t really a realistic goal for me.”

O’Doherty said that a realistic goal that would be exciting for him would be to finish top-five in all of his events at conference and even top-three in the 300-backstroke. Last year, O’Doherty broke a Panther record in the 200-backstroke and finished fourth with a time of 1:50.19. O’Doherty said he would like to re-break that record and set the new 100-back record at conference.

The Panthers start the Summit League Championships on Feb. 15 at IUPUI.

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