Eastern swimmers lost their home opener on Friday facing off against the Saint Louis Billikens. The women lost 170-92 to Saint Louis while the men lost 98-164. 

Senior Logan Long competed on 100m-backstroke, 50m-freestyle and freestyle relay last Friday against the Billikens. Although the team fell to Saint Louis, Long had a very positive outlook.

“It was good; it was our first meet here at Padovan Pool,” Long said, “We’ve had really good times so far.”

He went on to talk about the struggles the team has experienced so far. 

 “All around everyone has been doing really well,” Long said. “There have been some tough swims for us, but that happens; it just comes with the season. You can’t always have good times, but I think everyone has performed really well on the guys’ and girls’ side.”

Logan went on to speak on the team’s energy and how it would be instrumental in their success moving forward.

“Our energy is really good. We have a slogan ‘Dominate the deck’ and we try to just out cheer the other team everywhere we are at,” Long said. “Especially here with last weekend being our home opener. I thought we did a really good job of that, being loud and getting everybody hyped up for their races.”

Long also spoke about being excited to take on Valparaiso at the next meet along with some of his hopes for the season.

 “I just want to place at conference at the end of the year, so I’m working on getting stronger in the weight room. I think all the seniors are putting more work into the pool and just doing the little things that will help us get better,” Long said.

Ivan Escott, a sophomore swimmer, competed in the 100m-butterfly, 400m-medley relay and 50m-butterfly against Saint Louis. Escott also shared a positive outlook on this past meet.

 “Last meet was good; I was happy with my swims. I swam better than I did at Lewis so I was happy with it,” Escott said.

He went on to speak about the team’s performance and the atmosphere they are establishing.

“The team energy was crazy. Since it was our first meet here, everybody was ecstatic, everybody was ready to swim, everybody was really cheering each other on,” Escott said. “Everybody was able to hold the energy throughout the meet and just really push each other.”

Escott also mentioned some outstanding performances from the meet like Scott House finishing first in both the 100m and 50m-freestyle. 

The Panthers also took first in the men’s 200m-freestyle relay. 

Lauren Oostman and Grace Kennedy also took to first place wins, Oostman in the 50m-backstroke and Kennedy in the 50m-freestyle. 

The women’s team also won first in 100m–freestyle and 100m-backstroke. 

Escott attributed a lot of the team’s success to the strong freshman class and also mentioned some of his goals for the season moving forward.

 “The freshmen are crazy good. Their ability is unmatched, and they are so versatile; they help us in single area that we need it,” Escott said. “I’m looking forward to breaking a few records with the team and individually, and I’m looking forward to excitement at meets. Especially our two home meets Evansville and Valpo later in the season.”

Both Escott and Long were excited for their upcoming meet. 

Logan even mentioned that the Panthers have a good history against this team. The Panthers beat Valparaiso twice in the previous season. 

The last time the Panthers competed at Valparaiso, the men won 140-122 while the women won 167-94. Eastern will travel to Indiana to face the Valparaiso Crusaders for the first time this season on October 27th for a 1 p.m. meet.

Eric Hendrix can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]