It all came down to the last three races.  

The EIU men’s swim team kept it close all day. On the third to final race, EIU was able to place first and second. 

Through twelve races, EIU won half of them. After Evansville won the 200-yard individual medley, all that was left was the 200-yard freestyle relay.  

After the first three races, EIU and Evansville were neck and neck. Junior Nolan Wallace dove into the pool for EIU and sophomore Logan Tenison dove in for Evansville. 

Both swimmers already won two races for their team, and both wanted one more. 

Going into the one and only turn of the last leg of the race, both swimmers were right next to each other. Both teams got to the edge of the pool, cheering for their respective swimmers. 

Just 50 milliseconds separated the two swimmers as Tenison and Evansville were able to pull ahead at the very end.  

Wallace had a slight lead when he dove into the poll and just could not hang on. 

“I just wanted to try and hold on for the team, but I wasn’t able to, so it was pretty disappointing,” Wallace said. 

EIU lost to Evansville 136-126 on the men’s side and 143-114 on the Women’s side on Saturday at the Padovan Pool. 

Head coach Scott Teeters said that it was a very good meet despite the loss. 

Earlier this year, EIU and Evansville competed in the same meet at Southern Illinois, where Evansville placed a spot above Eastern.  

“We definitely beat them in events that we lost to them last time, so I think it just kind of helped knowing what they swim and who goes where in what events,” Wallace said. “I lost to both their breaststrokers earlier this year, but won today, so just getting better as the year goes on.” 

Wallace won the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke. 

On the women’s side, the team won five of the 14 events, but it was not enough. Junior Remingtyn Bokos was able to claim first in the 1,000-yard and 500-yard freestyle. 

The Panthers had dominant wins by freshman Sophia Buswell in the women’s 200-yard butterfly and senior Genevieve Biberdorf in the 200-yard breaststroke. Biberdorf was in the lead for all of her race and Buswell was able to win hers by 12 seconds. 

At the Padovan pool, Eastern usually sits on one of the big sides of the pool. However today, they sat at the other end of the start of the races. 

Teeters said that this was so the team could see the races and cheer on their fellow swimmers more easily. 

EIU only has three more meets before the Summit League Championships. All of those meets are at home. 

Next week, EIU has two meets on Saturday with one against the University of Illinois Chicago on Friday at 4 p.m. and Southern Indiana at 1 p.m. on Saturday. 

Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].