Coming off first-place finishes in the Panther Invitational last weekend, the Eastern swim teams continued to build momentum on the young season with wins against instate rival Western Illinois Nov. 8, at the Lantz Natatorium.

Both squads tallied their largest point totals of the season with the men winning easily 146-95 and the women following suit with a 145-97 victory.

The men were again led by their top swimmers Rich Wahlgren, Bill Senese and Tom Watson, who combined to win six races and each played key parts in Eastern’s wins in the 400-free and the 400-yard medley.

“Lots of practice and technique have been the reason for my success in those events,” Wahlgren said.

Senese continued to amaze early in his collegiate career with wins in the 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke.

“Bill is really swimming great,” Panthers head coach Ray padovan said. “He’s already gotten some lifetime bests and that is unheard of for a freshman.”

Watson, a junior from Bloomington, also got into the action with two wins over the weekend in the 500-yard (4:50.83) and 1000-yard freestyle (10:03.08) and now stands with eight wins on the year.

Eastern’s Dave Trabilsy swept the diving competition with victories in the one and three-meter events and gave the Panthers nine team points.

“Dave was awesome,” Wahlgren said. “We only had one diver and got nine points while Western Illinois had three divers who combined for nine points.”

On the women’s side, Jordan Sherbrooke continued her solid senior year with wins in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle with times of 1:59.50 and 5:17.93 respectively.

“We needed this win,” Padovan said. “It’s not that we haven’t swam well, but we’ve faced some good tough competition. This meet we swam solid and beat fairly tough competition.”