After a weekend’s rest, the Eastern men’s and women’s swim teams host Western and Butler on Saturday in hopes of continuing their win streaks.

The Panthers have had two weeks of practice and have been working hard in preparation for their upcoming meet.  The beginning of the week was more vigorous; however, both swim teams will have more relaxed practices for the rest of the week.

“We’re definitely getting in the mindset to race at practice,” senior Brandon Robbins said.  “We started off the week pretty hard and we’re slowly backing off starting today so we’re fresh for Western.”

In the last meet against Lewis, Robbins finished first in the 100-breast.  For Saturday’s meet, Robbins is focusing on the 200-breast event and, so far this year, he has not been satisfied with his performance in that event.

“I’m looking forward to the 200-breast,” Robbins said.  “I haven’t been able to put up a solid time in that event this season yet and I’m looking to improve this meet.”

Even with a weekend off, the Panthers are confident there will be no rest come Saturday’s meet.  Both teams have been practicing as if it was a meet, causing them to record times worthy at meets.

“We are very prepared for this meet,” junior Nick Harkins said.  “By not having a meet last weekend, we were able to get hard practices in.  Despite that, we’ve still put up impressive times in practice.”

The women’s team has had success against Western and Butler. Their record against Western the past two years is 2-0 and their record against Butler is 1-1.

For the women’s team, they have had the same mentality as the men’s team all week: start off the week practicing hard and go into the meet with high expectations.

“We’ve been training pretty hard the last two weeks so I expect us to do really well in spite of some of us being sore,” Oostman said.

Individually, Oostman has been dealing with a wrist injury the past couple of meets.  Even though Oostman is not at full strength yet, she is optimistic about the meet Saturday and she is confident in swimming backstroke in the medley relay.

“I’m not 100% with my wrist, but it’s doing a lot better now,” Oostman said.  “I’m just going to do my best and hope I come out on top.  I’ve been working a lot on my backstroke this season, but recently I’ve started to work on my IM as well.”

In Oostman’s last meet, she finished first in two events: the 200-IM (2:14.82) and the 100-Back (1:00.05).  The meet will begin Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Padovan Pool. 

Adam Shay can be reached at 581-2812 or acshay@eiu.edu