Just prior to Thanksgiving Break, the Eastern men’s swim team improved its dual meet record to 4-2 with a 129-112 road victory over Saint Louis on Nov. 20.

The Panthers impressive trio of Tom Watson, Bill Senese and Rich Wahlgren all remained hot by winning events against the Billikens.

Wahlgren, a senior from Palos Heights, continued his season-long dominance in the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle winning both events. His time of 48.84 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle was ahead of teammate Paul Anderson (50.26) to pick up the victory.

In the 200-yard freestyle, Wahlgren just edged out Saint Louis’ John Stoneburner (1:45.47 to 1:45.72) for his second event win of the meet. The Panthers’ captain has now won those same two events during the last four consecutive meets, and has 12 individual wins on the season.

Freestyler Watson followed Wahlgren’s lead by winning the 500-yard freestyle and finishing in second-place in the 1,000-yard event. With a time of 4:49.59 in the 500-yard free, Watson narrowly defeated Christopher Johansen of Saint Louis to win the event for the seventh straight meet. Johansen returned the favor to Wahlgren in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a four-second victory, but thanks to Wahlgren’s finish the Panthers still walked away with nine of the 19 total points in the event.

Freshman Bill Senese won for the 11th time on the year with a four-tenth of a second victory in the 50-yard freestyle, which was an event the Panthers dominated, taking the top three places and 16 of the 19 points. Senese won the event for the seventh straight meet and while his accomplishments may seem quite impressive, Panthers head coach Ray Padovan said Senese’s wins are not a surprise to him.

“I thought he’d be successful because he was very good in high school,” Padovan said. “This is what we expected from him.”

The win helped erase bad memories from Eastern’s two losses to Saint Louis last season, but, more importantly, the victory came against a solid team.

“This was a really good match for us,” Padovan said. “Saint Louis is a good team but we just won four or five close events.”

Unfortunately, Eastern’s women did not have the same success against the Billikens in their dual meet, losing 147-93 and saw their record fall to 1-5 in the process.

Despite the loss, Eastern racked up a handful of individual wins. Sophomore Jenny Curry won the 50-yard freestyle for the third straight meet and now has five victories on the season. The freestyler teamed with Jordan Sherbrooke, Allison Put and Megan Frawley to win the 200-yard free relay.

The Panthers also received wins from freshman Erica Stotts in the 100-yard breaststroke and junior diver Lindsae Baldes in the one-meter event. Both wins were the individuals first of the season.

Ultimately, the wins were not enough as Saint Louis finished with the first three spots in the 100-yard free and the 100-yard fly to secure a big lead and the victory over Eastern.

“Saint Louis was a lot better than us,” Padovan said. “Saint Louis is very good and we’re not quite as strong as last year, but the team is starting to come along.”

After a week off due to the holiday, the Panthers resumed regular practice Sunday and are preparing for their next meet against Butler on Dec. 6 at Lantz Natatorium.

“We don’t keep them here over the break so most of the kids swim with clubs back home,” Padovan said. “On Sunday (Nov. 30) we’ll be back in the pool practicing.”