Coming off its biggest win of the season with a 129-112 dual meet road victory against Saint Louis two weeks ago, the Eastern men’s swim team will be in action this Saturday taking on Butler at the Lantz Natatorium.

The Panther men (4-2) have won their last three dual meets and four of the last five after dropping the opening meet against Louisville. While Eastern heads into the meet on a roll, Butler has struggled of late losing two straight dual meets to Illinois-Chicago and Ball State and also had a disappointing third-place finish at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, finishing nearly 100 points behind the host school for the top spot.

With the teams heading in different directions, Panthers head coach Ray Padovan likes Eastern’s chances come Saturday.

“Both teams (Eastern and Butler) have some good talent,” Padovan said. “The main difference between the two is depth. Butler lacks depth, and we should (capitalize on that) and have good races all the way through.”

No matter how deep the opposition may be, the Panthers can expect a good swim from senior Rich Wahlgren. The Palos Heights native leads the team with 12 individual wins on the season and has won the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle in each of the last four events.

Joining Wahlgren as a key performer for the Panthers will be junior freestyler Tom Watson. Winning the 500-yard freestyle for the seventh consecutive meet against Saint Louis, Watson will look to continue his streak when he faces off against Butler’s Raj Duggal and Patrick McKenny. Watson’s streak in the 500-yard free should move to eight as his time of 4:49.59 against Saint Louis was considerably quicker than Duggal’s 4:56.85 and McKenny’s 5:10.35 during their last swim in the event.

The Panthers 4-2 record is extremely impressive considering the fact there are nine freshman on the 25-man roster. Not all of Eastern’s freshman have made an immediate impact but freestyler Bill Senese definitely has. The Amos A. Stagg graduate has won 11 meets on the season and in every dual meet this season he’s been victorious in at least one event.

“Bill has been exceptional as a freshman,” Padovan said. “He is really swimming great and has some lifetime bests already this year.”

Another freshman of note has been diver Dave Trabilsy with four individual wins. With the four top finishes, has also given the Panthers an edge over most teams in the diving competition which was missing last year when Eastern did not have a male diver.

“Dave’s been a lot better than I thought,” Padovan said. “He’s done a nice job with the dives.”

Padovan also mentioned Tyson Beaman in the breaststroke as a freshman who has surprised so far.

“We have several freshman wanting to breakout and Tyson has already filled in for us in the breaststroke.”

The women should be in good position to pick up their second dual meet win of the season. Led by sophomore Jenny Curry and senior Jordan Sherbrooke, the Panthers will look to snap a two meet losing streak.

“We match up especially good in the women’s side,” Padovan said. “We will also gain an advantage because the Butler women are not very deep.”

Over the last three dual meets, the Butler women have been outscored 126-66 (Ball State), 134-73 (Illinois-Chicago) and 73-46 (Xavier).

One concern for Padavon is how the team responds to their first action in nearly two weeks. The swimmers went home for the Thanksgiving break and swam mostly with club teams, making Padovan unsure how the team will look this weekend.

“I don’t know how we’ll look,” Padovan said. “I’m trying to see how we’ll do through practice and I can tell some did a lot of work over the beak and some didn’t do as much.”