With a little over a month break from meets, the Eastern men and women’s swim teams both fell short to Evansville on Saturday.

Evansville defeated the men’s team 158-130, handing them their first head-to-head loss this season. As for the women’s team, they lost 228-60 and were given their second loss of the year.

However, not all was a loss for the Panther swimmers on Saturday. Junior Lauren Oostman returned for the Panthers after missing the last meet as a result of a mouth-related injury.

Since Oostman has missed over a month’s worth of time, she needed to log in the extra hours to prepare for Saturday’s meet. Despite the nerves of returning, she was optimistic about Saturday.

“I was pretty nervous coming into this meet,” Oostman said, “but I did a lot of training over break, so I knew it wasn’t going to be as bad as I thought.”

In her return, Oostman performed well as she finished second in the 100-backstroke with a time of 59.76. She also swam first in the 200-medley race where she swam backstroke, helping the team finish second with a 1:54.34 time.

With her second-place time of 59.76, Oostman was happy with how she swam in her return, as her goal was to finish with a time under one minute. Since her return, Oostman has taken no time in easing back into her practice schedule.

“I pushed myself pretty hard in practice this past week because I knew I wasn’t where I was last semester,” Oostman said, “but I know I will be back where I was soon.”

As for the rest of the Panther swimmers, the men’s team combined for seven first-place finishes. The swimmer with two first-place finishes was senior Matt Jacobs with his 58.54 time in the 100-breastroke and 2:10.58 time in the 200-breaststroke.

Right behind Jacobs in the 100-breaststroke was senior Brandon Robbins, finishing second in the same event with a 1:00.71 time. Robbins then finished third in the 200-breaststroke (2:14.93).

The men’s team also took first place in the 200-medley (1:37.66) as well as the 200-freestyle race (1:27.13). Freshman Ivan Escott took first place in the 100-butterfly with a time of 52.66.

The longest race during a meet is the 1000-freestyle event, which freshman Christopher Dixon came in first place with a 10:23.33 time.

For the women, senior Danielle DiMatteo was the only swimmer to take first place in an event on Saturday as she finished first in the 100-butterfly with a time of 1:00.40. DiMatteo also finished third in the 50-freestyle, touching the wall at a 25.62 time.

The Panthers return to Padovan against Valparaiso on Saturday.

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