The Eastern Illinois men’s and women’s swim teams concluded their season last Saturday at the Midwest Classic Championships held in Indianapolis. The women won the six-team event by nearly 200 points over second-place Western Illinois. On the men’s side, Eastern failed to repeat as Midwest Classic Champions by finishing a disappointing fourth in the three-day event.

The championship by the women ended a roller-coaster season for the Panthers, but one in which head coach Ray Padovan was obviously pleased with.

“The season was great,” Padovan said. “All of them came together and fed off of each other.”

The women got off to a fast start by edging the Louisville Cardinals 120-117 in the season opener on Oct 18. In the meet, senior Alison Kenny established herself as a leader by providing the Panthers with two first-place finishes. Winning would be a reoccurring theme for Kenny who had 15 individual first-place finishes on the year.

The next day the Panthers hit the pool again and faced Xaiver at the Lantz Natatorium. Eastern suffered their first dual meet loss in nearly a year by dropping a 132-105 decision.

A week later, the Panthers traveled to Chicago for a non-conference showdown against the University of Illinois-Chicago. The tandem of Kenny and Jordan Sherbrooke helped Eastern extinguish the Flames 137-105.

After the meet, Padovan said it was important for the Panthers to get back into the win column and prepare for some tough upcoming competition.

“It was real good to get a win,” Padovan said. “We know the teams coming up (Western Illinois, IUPU-I, Lincoln) will be tough as nails. So we have to beat the teams we are supposed to.”

The Panthers responded to Padovan’s challenge and won their next three meets. Eastern defeated Western Illinois and IUPUI in dual meets and took home first-place in the EIU Panther Invitation held in early November.

The Panthers would not lose again until late November when Saint Louis handed them their second loss of the season 128-114. The women used the loss as a wake-up and ran off three straight victories in a row.

However, the winning streak was in jeopardy on Feb. 8, when the Panthers hosted the Saint Louis Billikens in a much-anticipated rematch. Eastern was looking for revenge but had one of their most unfulfilling meets of the season. Only Kenny and Sherbrooke could produce wins for Eastern as the Billikens outswam the Panthers 140-107.

Assistant coach Bill Yanney said the Panthers had problems closing out some of their races.

“We had some good swims, but we couldn’t finish races,” Yanney said. “Saint Louis just performed better; they had some real good swimmers.”

Yanney also stressed that fatigue was becoming a factor, especially for young swimmers Claire Garvey and Jenny Curry. The freshmen duo was a surprise for the Panthers for a majority of the season but suffered a forgettable meet against Saint Louis.

“They (Curry and Garvey) will definitely benefit from the time off before the Midwest Classic Championships,” Yanney said.

After the setback at home against the Billikens, Yanney promised the Panthers would come out aggressive and ready for the Midwest Classic Championships.

True to their assistant coach’s word, the Panthers did what Yanney said they would. Eastern led wire-to-wire and easily won the meet. The Panthers won 11 of the 20 events and were paced by Jordan Sherbrooke’s three wins on the day. For her efforts, the junior from Avon, Ind., was named ‘Female Swimmer of the Meet.’

Sophomore Lindsae Blades had two strong diving performances for the Panthers. Blades finished in first place in the 1-meter diving and second in the 3-meter diving. Blades was the named the ‘Female Diver of the Meet.’

The Panthers were not done receiving personal accomplishments. Ray Padovan, in his 24th year as women’s coach, was named the ‘Women’s Coach of the Meet.’

The Panthers finished the year 7-3 and won their first Midwest Classic Championship in over a decade.

The men came into the season as the defending Midwest Classic Champions after posting a 12-0 record in 2001-02 swimming year. In 2002-03 the men posted a respectable 6-3-1 regular-season record, but they ended the season on a down note by finishing fourth behind IUPUI, Eastern Michigan and the front running Leathernecks of Western Illinois.

The men came up short in the Midwest Classic Championship, but they had many great performances during the season.

Incumbent senior Josh Kercheval led the Panthers all year long. The Sullivan native was the Panthers co-captain and won 21 races during the season. Kercheval had his best meet of the year during the EIU Panther Invitational when he won three races including the 400-meter individual medley.

After Kercheval’s performance, he received nothing but praise from his coach.

“For quite a while Josh has been our best swimmer,” Padovan said. “He usually out-distances the competition.”

Kercheval will leave Charleston with his name atop four records. He has the fastest time in the 200 and 400 individual medley and the 100 and 200-meter backstroke.

Another swimmer who made waves during the year was sophomore Tom Watson. The Bloomington native found his niche by swimming in the long distance races. Often paired with Kercheval and juniors Jim Rhodes and Jim Anderson, Watson was part of two relay winners and over a dozen individual first-place finishes during the course of the season.

The men could not overcome the lack of divers throughout the season. Due to various circumstances, the men’s team did not have any divers during the year. At many meets the Panthers found themselves down by 30-plus points before the event began. Padovan said it is a problem the Panthers will deal with next year.

“It’s something that we have to deal with ,and we (the coaching staff) will address the situation next year.”

Besides lacking divers, the men’s relay teams were disqualified twice at the Midwest Classic Championship. The two disqualifications cost the Panthers over 70-points, and they could never move ahead of third-place.

Padovan put it best when he said, “We were happy somewhat with the performance and also disappointed somewhat.”