The Eastern men’s and women’s swim teams dropped their respective meets against Ball State Friday at Padovan Pool, where the Panthers lost 151-111 and 165-97, respectively to the Cardinals.

Even though the teams lost, Eastern coach Jacqueline Michalski said she was pleased with how things went.

“I was really happy with it, even though we lost, a lot of good fundamentals were there tonight,” she said.

The women were also short on swimmers because of illness and Michalski was happy with how they dealt with it and felt if they were at full strength it would be a closer score.

So, with some women sick, it forced others to swim in races that are not their strongest race, but on the positive side it got everyone in an event.

Both teams as a whole wanted to focus on having better turns this time and Michalski said there was a big improvement.

Sophomore men’s swimmer Harris Thompson won both of his races. Thompson won his 1000-freestyle, with a time of 9:59.67, beating the second place finisher of Ball State by 17 seconds. Thompson also won his 500-freestyle race, with a time of 4:48.70, winning by 10 seconds.

On the women’s side, freshman Amy Smith won both of her backstroke races. Smith won the 100-backstroke, with a time of 1:00.21, winning by two seconds. She also won her 200-backstroke with time of 2:09.93, again winning by two seconds.

Sophomore Brogan O’Doherty won both of his backstroke events. He won the 100-backstroke, with a time of 52.66 and the 200-backstroke, with a time of 1:57.57.

Even though some swimmers did not win their races, Michalski said she was very happy with how they swam and with their times.

“Kelsey didn’t win her events but had really good, solid times, improved her times from last time,” Michalski said about junior Kelsey Ferguson.

Freshman Matt Jacobs took second in his 100-breaststroke, but got a lifetime best time of 1:00.37.

Michalski said that the best race of the whole meet was the men’s 200 individual medley. The Panthers took first, second and third place, respectively.

Freshman Steve Fishman took first place finishing at 2:01.36, with fellow junior Panther Dylan Ferguson right behind him in second with a time of 2:03.22 and freshman Ashton Pollick only .31 seconds behind him in third place.

Despite the loss, Michalski was happy with the scores the swimmers posted and will now prepare for their next meet at 11 a.m. Saturday at Padovan Pool, where the Panthers will host Valparaiso.

Sean Hastings can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].