AUBURN, Ala. -- On Tuesday afternoon, the Eastern Illinois men's and women's swimming squads finished the first leg of their mid-winter workout and invitational action as both Panther units faced host Auburn University in a non-scoring event.

“We ran an untraditional meet,” said third year head coach Matt Bos. “We set events up in flights in order to matchup our swimmers by event and performance ability. Which meant the meet was not scored.”

Bos said that nearly every Panther swimmer saw action, except for Megan Eshleman, Tyler Hsieh, and John Wilson.

“Today was a great chance for us to get a bunch of swims in against great competition,” said Bos. “Even more so than had we ran it like a traditional dual meet. We have been training really hard during this break and it was nice to get back into the pool and see some competition against one of the top programs in the country.”

Next up for the EIU squads will be the two-day Tunica Invitational on Jan. 7-8, as the Panthers will battle three other teams in a more traditional multi-team scoring format.

Bos thinks that Missouri State from the Missouri Valley Conference will most likely be the toughest competition that Eastern will face, while both Arkansas-Little Rock and Delta State will also partake in the two-day event.

Once the Panthers return to campus for classes next week, the squads will prepare for their annual battle versus arch-rival Western Illinois, to be hosted by the Leathernecks on Sat., Jan. 15 with first splash is set for 1 pm. That dual will be closely followed by the IUPUI Jaguar Relays scheduled for the following Tuesday (Jan. 17).

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