For the second consecutive weekend the Eastern swimming and diving teams will be at Lantz Natatorium for a two-day, six-team meet starting at 5 p.m. Friday.

The Panther Invitational is an annual meet aimed toward getting teams a lot of swims in several different events.

“We swim a bunch of events we normally wouldn’t swim,” Eastern coach Ray Padovan said. “Basically, we are getting in 20 events in about 26 hours. There are a lot of good swims in a short period of time.”

Joining Eastern in the six-team event will be Valparaiso, Butler, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, Lincoln College and Millikin.

Valparaiso, Butler and IUPUI were all a part of last weekend’s Indiana Intercollegiate event hosted by Purdue. Both IUPUI’s men’s and women’s teams fared the best of the three with the men taking third and women finishing fifth.

Millikin opened its season last weekend at the CCIW Fall Classic while Lincoln will be getting into the pool for its first meet of the year.

Padovan said the Panthers are probably the best overall team in the competition because some of the other teams lack depth.

He expects some of the most competitive events to be the 50-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle events.

He expects Tom Watson to get some better competition in the 500 freestyle, an event he has won in the first three meets of the year.

“Tom Watson will have his hands full in the 500,” Padovan said. “He will have really strong competitors from Butler and IUPUI.”

Padovan said Watson has really improved his times from last year.

“He has really been swimming and he’s really ahead of where he was last season,” Padovan said.

“I think he’s just getting a little bit stronger.”

Padovan also said he expects to see a little better times from his women’s team, which has struggled to a 0-3 record.

“From a time standpoint, several individuals have been coming around,” Padovan said.

“A lot of people have been sick and injured. We’ve been very tired in the weight room and in the pool. They are going to eventually adjust to it.”

Friday events will begin at 5 p.m. and will include a few relays, the 50 freestyle, the 2,000 individual medley and the 500 freestyle.

The meet will continue at 8 a.m. Saturday beginning with diving events and then working in the rest of the swimming throughout the day.