The Eastern men’s and women’s swim team’s meet this weekend is different compared to all the other meets this season because there are no individual swimming events. The meet will only include relays and medley relays, making it essential for the team to work together.

The Eastern men and women’s swim team will be in Terre Haute to swim at the Indiana State Relay Meet this weekend.

With this meet being different than the rest, Panther swimmers are more than excited to compete. Since there are no individual events, the swimmers are referring to the meet as more laid-back, but expect to still perform at a high level.

“This meet is all relay events and considered kind of a ‘fun meet’,” senior Steve Fishman said. “Expect us to have fun and hopefully post some good time.”

Since this is a relay race, the swimmers haven’t been focusing on individual times. Fishman has not been working on anything specific during this week’s practices; however, making the adjustment from a week off of swimming has made the practices tougher.

Even though the upcoming meet is more relaxed, the Panthers are still having tough practices since they returned from break. When it comes to specifics during practice, there hasn’t been much to change.

“It’s been a rough week of practices so I think being able to have a more laid-back meet like this is nice,” senior Brandon Robbins said. “As a whole, I think the team is excited that the meet is so close. No real adjustment as far as practice goes.”

In Eastern’s last meet at the House of Champions, the Panthers combined for six top 25 finishes. One of the men’s swimmers, senior Matt Jacobs, performed well enough to earn Swimmer of the Week in the Summit League.

There is still much work to be done to fix some things from last week’s meet. One thing the Panther swimmers have been working on is adjusting their exchanges during the relays.

“At the last House of Champions meet, relay exchanges were not the greatest, so we have been working a lot on those,” junior Martee Grainger said. “This meet will be a more fun meet because it’s all relays and much less intense. It’s much lighter of a meet than normal.”

In the beginning of the year, Grainger suffered a small ACL tear which has set her back. Since then, Grainger said she has been working on her endurance the most because her 200-freestyle has taken a hit. Her shorter events have returned naturally for her.

Grainger was one of the women swimmers who helped finish in the top 25 in the 400-Free Relay (3:37.11).

For the women swimmers, junior Lauren Oostman will not be participating due to an injury. The rest of the swimmers will be able to compete on Saturday.

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