EIU Men's (1-2) and Women's (1-2) Swimming at the SIU A3 Performance Invite
Thursday, Nov. 11 - Saturday, Nov. 13
Carbondale, Ill.
ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois swimming will travel to Carbondale, Ill. where they will compete in the A3 Performance Invite hosted by Southern Illinois University. The teams that will be competing include Southern Illinois, Bellarmine, Evansville, and Valparaiso. Both squads for the Panthers are coming off losses against Ball State on Friday, Oct. 29.
MEN'S RECAP: EIU finished first in four events last meet against Ball State. The Cardinals men's team won 161-95 over EIU. Freshman
Spencer Wilson picked up two of four individual first place finishes for EIU. Wilson won the men's 200 free event with a time of 1:44.83 and took home top honors in the 500 free with a time of 4:52.60.
Joel Talley also won the 200 IM with a time of 2:00.87. The EIU men's first place 400 free relay team included
Payton Buse,
Dismas Dillon,
Forrest Baumgartner and
Conner Colston with the team posting a time of 3:15.98. EIU closed out the meet with a number of second place individual finishes including
Collin Feliciano who had a pair of runner-up finishes in the 100 breast (1:00.08) and 200 breast (2:13.88).
Dismas Dillon was second in the 50 free with a time of 21.67.
WOMEN'S RECAP: The women's squad won two events against the Cardinals last meet. The Ball State women's team won 174-84 against EIU.
Emma Ballantyne had a first place finish for the EIU women in the 200 IM with a time of 2:16.09. EIU added a first place finish in the 400 free relay as Ball State swam this event as an exhibition giving EIU the win. The women's team posted a time of 3:39.14 with
Autumn Grinter,
Kaylan Ottosen,
Sabrina Chu and
Camryn Lewis swimming for the Panthers.
Kennedy Darensbourg was second in the 1000 free with a time of 10:49.88.
Olivia Viele turned in a pair of second place performances in the 100 back (59.86) and 200 back (2:11.00).
SWIMMERS OF THE WEEK: Spencer Wilson and
Kennedy Darensbourg both won Summit League Swimmers of the Week after their performances against Ball State. Wilson led the way for the men's team with two wins in the 200 free and 500 free. It was his first Swimmer of the Week win of his career. Darensbourg placed second in the 1000 free which landed her Swimmer of the Week. It was also her first nomination for this award of her career.
NEXT UP: Both teams will be traveling to Terre Haute, Ind. on Saturday, December 4. EIU men's swimming wil be competing against Bellarmine for the second time this season. As for the women's they will be competing against Bellarmine and Indiana State.
HEAD COACH: Coach Donges comes to EIU after a successful one-year stop at Anderson University where he coached swimmers on the men's and women's teams to 22 school records last season. In 2019, Donges was head coach at the EXOS/Bryan Glazer Jewish Community Center in Tampa, Florida. He developed the swimming fitness program for the team and was in charge of recruiting for the club. He coached for seven years with Yorktown Swim Club, beginning in 2012, taking over as head coach in 2015. During his time as head coach, Donges oversaw the direction of swimming for all athletes at the Yorktown Swim Club. He also took the lead in marketing and recruitment associated with Yorktown Swim Club. He graduated from Ball State University with both a bachelor's and master's degree.
