Eastern’s women’s swim team won their first meet of the year during senior night against Lewis University 142-119 on Friday evening in the Padovan Pool.
Eastern were able to win nine out of the 14 events to get a win on senior night.
Fifth year senior freestyle and breaststroke swimmer Emma Keith was not able to score any points for her team, but she said she was excited to win, nonetheless.
“When the score came out, holy mother of God,” Keith said. “I felt like I touched the ceiling, man.”
Keith said the energy all night was palpable, and the entire team was able to feed off it.
Eastern head coach Scott Teeters said the pool was standing room only.
Lewis only won three sprint events but won two out of the four long distance events.
Lewis interim head coach Tim O’Neil said they have to work on their sprints, but the meet was good preparation for the Division II championships and conference play.
“Yeah, a really great senior day for Eastern,” O’Neil said. “Enjoyable meet to have us come down here. It’s great competition as we’re headed into both of our conference meets and our, you know, for us we’re also heading to Division II Nationals.”
On the other hand, Eastern men’s team only won four events as Lewis beat them 152-110.
The men’s meet was more one-sided for Lewis as some of the events turned into races just between Lewis swimmers.
In the men’s 400-yard individual medley, two Lewis swimmers, sophomores Tyler Conner and Rhys Vale finished in first place with the same time at 4:17.66.
“Really exciting race from our 400 diameter, had a tie there on the men’s side,” O’Neil said. “A lot of confidence from our swimmers in that race. Really excited for how that’s going to translate from a team culture standpoint as well.”
Eastern’s senior freestyle swimmer Conner Colston was able to get some points for Eastern as he was able to win the men’s 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:43.12. He was also able to finish second in the men’s 100-yard freestyle and was able to help his relay team win in the men’s 200-yard freestyle relay.
Colston said the team just needs to regroup and focus on getting better before the Summit League Championship.
“Going back to the big picture of the Summit League championships and just grinding it out,” Colston said. “We only got a couple weeks left, and for, you know, four or five of the guys, I mean this is it.”
Teeters said he is not concerned with the loss, and the team will keep training right through the meet to get even better and ready for the Summit League Championships.
“What we try to do is we just try to make sure that when we race, we’re doing the little things well, the fundamentals, diving in and breaking out, doing your turn right, not breathing into your finish, and then splitting the race the right way,” Teeters said. “So that you’re gonna be consistent with what you gotta do at the Summit League.”
Eastern has to regroup fast as both teams have a meet against Southern Illinois in Carbondale on Saturday at 12 p.m.
Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at pfschmitz@eiu.edu.
