In the Eastern men and women’s swim teams’ final home meet of the season, both teams finished with victories against Valparaiso for a sweep on the season.

Each team won their meets comfortably as the men’s team won 121-84 and women’s team won 119-84. Despite both teams winning comfortably, this meet had a greater significance than swimming against Valparaiso.

After three and a half years of swimming in Padovan pool, ten seniors competed in their last meet. For senior swimmer Dani DiMatteo, her last home meet was memorable as she broke the Padovan Pool record for the 100-IM (58.87) and came close on other records.

DiMatteo said her main focus during the meet was to take the 100-fly pool record, but missed the record by .2 seconds. However, DiMatteo coming up short motivated her to push harder in her other events.

“After pushing off that race, I focused on my next event being the 100-IM,” DiMatteo said. “I was planning on breaking the pool record in the 100-IM, but ended up breaking my team record, as well as the pool record.”

Later in the meet, DiMatteo’s success carried over from individual events to the 800-free relay where she led the Panthers off with a top ten 200 freestyle time. By the end of the race, DiMatteo, juniors Martee Grainger and Caro Lamarque, and sophomore Karleen Gernady broke the 800-free record with a time of 7:57.76.

Looking back over the four years, DiMatteo said swimming for the Panthers has been an incredible privilege and specifically as a senior, it has been a privilege to watch the incoming freshman grow as individuals.

“It has been a long and hard four years swimming, but it’s a privilege some will never have and a major accomplishment I have succeeded,” DiMatteo said. “Even though I swam some events I’ll never swim again, I wouldn’t want to do it without my teammates by my side.”

Aside from DiMatteo, there were other seniors that had success in the pool. Emily Stroud swam backstroke in the 200-Medley Relay, helping the Panthers take first place honors with a time of 1:52.50.

As for the men swimmers, senior Steve Fishman brought home two first place victories in the 50-free (21.36) and the 100-back (53.59). Other seniors who took first place victories are Patrick Wood in the 100-IM (57.60) and Matt Jacobs in the 100-Breast (58.06).

Saturday was an emotional day for the seniors as they were honored before the meet. However, while some swimmers reflect on their previous years, there was still a meet that needed to be won.

“It honestly wasn’t as emotional as I was anticipating,” senior Brandon Robbins said. “You get lost in the meet encouraging your teammates and focusing on having a good swim. There wasn’t really anytime to think about it being my last home meet.”

For their next meet, the Panthers will travel to St. Louis, Missouri on Saturday to swim against the Saint Louis Billikens.

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