Eastern sets records, takes finishes first

The Eastern men’s and women’s swimming and diving team both ran away with a first place finish in the Panther Invitational this past weekend.

The Eastern men tallied 742 points, 196 more than second place finisher IUPU- Indianapolis. The women had a total 802, with a 380-point cushion over their second place finisher Lewis University.

“We did a great job,” head coach Raymond Padovan said. ” We were just a little bit bigger and a little more balanced for them.”

Meet records fell all weekend for a total of six new times. The men’s 400 and 800-meter relay grabbing two in the 800 and 400 relay free with times of 7:12.63, five seconds better, and 3:16.03, edging out the old record by .13 seconds. The men’s 400 and 800 relay teams have four members Nic Cheviron, Josh Kercheval, Rich Wahlgren and Tom Watson.

“It’s great we broke the meet record during the season and we are swimming very fast.,” Junior Josh Kercheval said.

“It is great but we want to break the team record,” junior Nic Cheviron said.

Freshman Kevin Wheatley set a meet record for the 200 meter butterfly with a time of 2:00.89 breaking the old record by mere fractions of a second in his first collegiate invitational. Jordan Sherbrooke set a meet record in the women’s 500-meter freestyle by a time of 5:15.44, ousting the old record by more than a second and a half. Junior Allison Kenny kept her undefeated streak alive as she completed a clean sweep of the 50, 100 and 200 meter freestyle. Every time she has gone into the water she has come out in first place.

“That’s what I intend to do but I never plan on it, Allison said. “It’s my goal.”

Lindsae Baldes took first place in the one meter springboard and a second place finish in the three meter springboard while men’s diver Zach Miller took second in the three meter and third in the one meter springboard competitions.

“I felt better on the 1-meter divers because they are harder dives,” Baldes said. “I was more comfortable and i just kept being consistent with my dives.”

The Panthers, men and women, were in first place for the whole Invitational and were never in jeopardy of losing any ground to any of the teams as they maintained over 200 point leads throughout the first and second of the three sessions.

The meet was a confidence booster for the Panthers.

“We can’t wait until next week,” senior captain Jessica Kaatz said. “We are really proud of our team efforts.”

The men’s team (4-0) will attempt to remain undefeated and the women (2-2) are going for their third-straight win as they both suit up this weekend for back-to-back home meets. The teams will face Western Illinois on Friday and they square off against Butler University on Saturday in the Lantz Natatorium.