Results:  PDF | HTM   Photo Gallery (by Sandy King)

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- The Eastern Illinois men's and women's swimming squads splashed past fellow Summit League foe IUPUI in dual meet action on Saturday afternoon, with the Panthers winning 176-79 and 167-94, respectively.

The two victories help the EIU men and women improve to 5-2 and 4-3 on the season. The meet also served as a fund raiser for breast cancer awareness with money being donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, with the Ray Padovan Pool decked out in pink.

“This was a great event and I really want to thank IUPUI for supporting us during our 'Paint the Pool Pink' event,” said second year head coach Matt Bos. “We are starting to see some really good performances and we have some who are on the verge of real break-out performances.”

The men were led by sophomore Rich Waszak who won three events and setting new season bests in the process in the 100-Back (53.74), 200-Back (1.55.21), and 100-Fly (54.15).

Newcomer John Wilson took both sprint events, touching first in the 50 and 100-Free races with times of 21.56 and 47.72, respectively, all new bests as well. Junior Tim Mathieu also collected two wins, in the 500 and 100-Free events.

Other winners for the guys came from juniors Matt O'Hagan in the 100-Breast (59.53), Nathan Moritz in the 200-Fly (1:57.35) and Matt Scaliatine in the 200-Breast (2:10.81), while freshmen Michael Bower and Mike Lacine were victorious in the 400-IM (4:18.88), 200-Free (1:48.83), respectively.

In relays, the 200-Medley foursome of Rich Waszak, Joe Ciliak, Cody Showers, and John Wilson touched first with a new season best time of 1:35.84; while Ken Tiltges, Wilson, Showers, and Colin McGill combined to win the 200-Free Relay in 1:26.62, also a new season best.

“Rich Waszak had a great meet for us, as did Michael Bower,” said Bos. “They both have done some great things in practice and only continue to get better and better. John Wilson also had a good day winning both the 50 & 100 free and partaking in both first place relays.”

For the women, senior Laura Nilsen made the most of her day, setting a new pool mark in her 200-Back win with a time of 2.07.36.

Junior Megan Eshleman won a couple of races, first in the 1000-Free (10:58.83) and again in the 500-Free (5:23.19), while Kelli Dicanio took both the 100 and 200-Breast races in 1:09.06 and 2:28.37, respectively.

Three other swimmers set new season best times in their wins, including senior Kellie Logterman in the 100-Fly (59.36), junior Alyssa Lehman in the 100-Free (56.24) and sophomore Tyler Crittenden in the 100-Back (1:01.17). Senior Lauren Zillmer also picked up a nice win in the 50-Free sprint in 24.84.

The EIU women also won both relay events as Laura Nilsen, Kelli Dicanio, Kellie Logterman, and Lauren Zillmer teamed up to win the 200-Medley Relay in 1:51.38., with the 200-Free Relay of Tyler Crittenden, Nilsen, Molly Nordyke and Zillmer winning in 1:41.00.

“It was nice to see Laura Nilsen get our pool record in the 200 back,” Bos said. “It was especially sweet since this is the last time she will swim that event in our pool, so it was a nice way for her to go out. Plus I can't say enough about Megan Eshleman, as she has really stepped up for us when we really need her and is doing a great job each day.”

The Panthers will now prepare for their final home meet of the season, hosting Saint Louis in a rematch next Saturday (Feb. 6) at noon. The meet will feature a special pre-meet ceremony to honor six seniors. The Panther squads both earned nice early-season wins over the Billikens last semester and hope to have a good meet prior to the end-of-season Summit League Meet next month.

“We still have a tough meet next week against SLU,” said Bos. “They are much better than when we saw them back in November, so we are going to have to be really good next week. We will really start to see a difference in training this week as we start to back off for the league meet, but hopefully we can keep the momentum going into next week's meet as well as onto Indy.“

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