The Eastern swim teams continued their impressive winning streaks as the men cruised and the women squeaked past Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis Jan. 30, at the IU Natatorium.

Behind a complete team effort from both the new and veteran Panthers, the men made it seven straight dual meet victories with a 178-118 win over the Jaguars.

Junior freestyler Tom Watson put the Panthers ahead in the second event by winning the long distance 1000 yard free in a time of 9:57.25. Watson pulled away from IUPUI freshman Brian Wheeler during the final four laps of the race to pick up his sixth win of the season in the 1000 free.

“Tom Watson swam well in the 1000 free,” Panthers head coach Ray Padovan said. “He swam a very controlled race.”

What Watson started for the Panther’s freshmen Bill Senese and Tyson Beaman finished as the men improved to 8-2 overall.

Senese, who competes in the freestyle and backstroke events, won two races and finished third in his other swim. The Amos A. Stagg graduate continued the Panthers’ comfortable lead with an extremely close victory (two-tenths of a second over IUPUI’s Grant Anderson) in the 100 yard backstroke. Senese later won the 100 yard free (24.53) and placed third in the 50 yard free with a time of 22.05.

With a valuable rookie year, Senese figures to play an important role in the season-ending Midwest Classic Championships, and despite being a freshman, Padovan has no problem placing him in pressure situations.

“His best event is the 100 free, but I don’t know if he’ll compete in that event at the Midwest Classic because he is our main backstroker,” Padovan said. “He’s been really solid in the 50 (yard free) and at the “Classics” he’ll face some good competition including IUPUI’s (A.J. Parks).”

After being held winless for the first month and a half of the season, Beaman has broken out with four individual wins in the last five meets. Against IUPUI, Beaman picked up two wins in the 200 individual medley and the 200 yard breast.

“He’s been really solid in the breaststroke and 200 yard breast,” Padovan said. “We’re waiting for a big drop in his times over the last few weeks.”

Eastern also received a win from senior freestyler Rich Wahlgren in the 200 yard free, and dominated the 200 yard free relay taking the top two spots.

“We swam fairly solid,” Padovan said. “We got a lot of guys involved in a quick meet.”

The women’s meet went down to the wire as Eastern was victorious 148-145 to pick their fourth straight win.

Senior Jordan Sherbrooke led the way for the Panthers with victories in the 200 yard free and the 500 yard free. The Avon, Ind., native has now won five races in the last two meets as she looks to close out her Eastern career on a high note.

“She’s starting to swim really well,” Padovan said. “She swam nice and solid in the 200 free and hard in the other events.”

Despite Sherbrooke’s heroics, Eastern still needed to place two team’s in the 200 yard free relay to win the event, and the Panthers did just that. While IUPUI’s “A” squad won the event, Eastern’s two team’s aced by Jenny Curry and Kristin McCoy placed second and third to pick up a tight team victory for Eastern.

“I didn’t think it would be that tough to beat them,” Padovan said. “They (IUPUI) had some very good swims, but our relay team’s were able to pull out the victory.”