After three road meets, the Eastern swimming teams will return for a Homecoming dual meet against Illinois-Chicago at 5 p.m. Friday at Lantz Natatorium. The meet will consist mainly of just short sprint events.

On the young season, the Panther swimmers have had both ups in downs while looking to adapt to a new year.

The Flames have yet to compete this year, but Padovan said from past years, it should be a pretty close meet.

“It’s going to be a very good meet,” Padovan said. “They have been getting better and better each year.”

Last season in the Horizon League Championships the UIC women took fourth while the men finished fifth.

In last year’s meet, Eastern squeaked out wins in both the men’s (124-112) and women’s (137-105) sides.

Last weekend, the women dropped both meets, while the men split, but Padovan said he was not upset because the effort has been there.

“I’m not upset with anybody,” Padovan said. “I only get upset when people don’t work hard. We just have a lot of new people who need to develop. It’s only October so we still have a ways to go.”

There are a few areas where Padovan thinks his teams could use some improvement.

“We need to get a better backstroke in the women and the medley in the men,” Padovan said. “Those are just a few things that need to be worked on a bit.”

With the pool being shut down for a short period in the beginning of the year and some swimmers not putting extra training in the summer, Padovan said conditioning can only get better from here.

The men’s team has seen several swimmers take control with first-place finishes from tom Watson, Rich Wahlgren and Bill Senese in both dual meets against Louisville and Xavier.

The women have had a few first-place finishes with Jordan Sherbrooke being the backbone having first-place finishes in the 100 and 200 backstroke and 200 and 500 freestyle events.