After about a two-week break, the Eastern swim team is back in the pool and will head to the House of Champions this weekend at Indiana-Purdue University Indianapolis.

The men and women both won their last meet against Valparaiso Nov. 7 in Padovan Pool by large margins.

The women are off to a 2-4 start, and the men are 1-4 to start the year.

Eastern will be swimming against IUPUI, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Evansville, Western, Butler, Indianapolis, Lewis, Bellarmine and Centre College.

The Panthers are posting much faster times compared to last year heading into the House of Champions meet, and it has the teams feeling confident coach Jacqueline Michalski said.

“(The team) is very excited,” Michalski said. “This meet is always a really strong meet for us. It’s our mid-season invite, it’s set up identical to conference, pre-lim finals and same event order, so it really gives us a great tool to kind of see where we are at midseason.”

This season has been filled with first place finishes, as well as some top three finishes, and the swimmers are expecting personal bests from themselves Michalski said.

Since the Panthers are swimming faster times compared to last year, as a team, they will go into the meet with better seed times.

Eastern would usually only get about one or two swimmers to reach the “A” finals, but Michalski said they have a shot at sending a few more there this year.

Senior Kaylee Morris is one of the women’s swimmers who has more than one first place finish this year. Morris won the 100-yard freestyle against Valparaiso and she also won the 50- and 100-yard freestyle against Evansville.

Morris said she is excited for this weekend at House of Champions.

“House of Champs has always been a good meet for me,” Morris said. “IUPUI has a great facility and there are ample opportunities for some good racing. I’m ready to have some fun with my teammates and swim fast.”

Fellow senior Kelsey Ferguson has also been one to put her hand on the wall first a few times, as she won the 400-yard individual medley against Valparaiso and the 200-yard individual medley against Evansville.

For the men, Steve Fishman and Stephen Truchon both had first place finishes in the meet against Valparaiso. Fishman took first in the 200-yard backstroke and Truchon took first in the 50-yard freestyle.

Since all of the swimmers are posting fast times, Morris said everyone is feeling good heading into House of Champions.

“We’ve already posted some exceptional times this season and we are ready to see some fast swims and make some noise,” Morris said. “This is an exciting meet for us and I think our team as a whole is in a very good place.”

The meet will start Friday and finish Sunday.

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