Results:  PDF | HTM

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- The Eastern Illinois men's and women's swimming squads dropped a dual meet to instate foe Illinois-Chicago on Saturday afternoon, losing 152-108 and 138-121, respectively. The loss drops the Panther men to 1-1 on the early season, while the women fell to 0-2 in dual meet action.

The Panthers combined for 41 Top 3 finishes, with the men earning 23 and the women 18. Eastern touched the wall first in ten events, with the women winning seven and the men three.

“We competed well today,” said second year head coach Matt Bos. “Although we were a little bit flat and not as sharp as I would have liked, but that is most likely due to training taking a toll a bit. The intense training and hard practices from Monday to Friday can take a lot out of you, and then suddenly you are broken down and have to suddenly get up and race on a Saturday. But that's part of the sport this time of year. I really think we made a big step for our program today, because we are competing with teams at the next level. That is what we'll take from today's meet. We are definitely a better team and it was a very positive day for us.”

Bos continued. “Freshman Kelli Dicanio won both breast strokes, so she obviously put in some solid swims. Alex Green, won the 200-free and that is normally not one of her top events, so she had a good swim. For the guys, Joe Ciliak won a close breaststroke race, while Ken Tiltges did well time-wise. John Wilson# won the 50-Fee and came up second in the 100-Free, which are solid finishes this time of year. Nathan Mortiz swam as good today as he ever has at any point of his career, so it's good to see him getting better and better every week.”

“The girls got off to good solid start, taking the 200-Medley relay right off. But not having Kelly Logterman in the lineup today was a bit of a blow, so we ended up losing some points in the fly events. If we could have had her today, I think it could have been an interesting meet point-wise.”

Besides winning the 200-Medley Relay, the EIU women also won the meet-ending 200-Free Relay (1:39.22). Other first-place winners included Laura Nilsen winning both the 100-Back (59.77) and 200-IM (2:12.75).

“This coming week we are going to keep working hard. Adjustments to our training are going well. We just need to get up and race at the end of the week. We have a lot of momentum going into next weekend against Western and we are swimming really well for the end of October. The squad is excited and will be ready to go. The WIU meet is always a big one for us, as the rivalry is pretty intense. So obviously this is going to be one our biggest meets of the year.”

The squads have a week to prepare for their annual rivalry dual meet versus fellow Summit League and instate foe Western Illinois next weekend. First splash is set for 1 pm on Saturday, Nov. 7 at EIU's Ray Padovan Pool. 


... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID