Summit League Championship Site (including live results)
CHARLESTON, Ill. -- The Eastern Illinois swimming and diving units are set to get wet at the upcoming Summit League Championship, being held on the campus of perennial favorite Oakland University. Action begins on Thursday and will continue thru Saturday at the OU Aquatic Center in Rochester, Mich.
Teams competing include EIU, the host Grizzlies, Centenary, IUPUI, South Dakota State, Western Illinois. Oakland have won the last nine consecutive championships on both the men’s and women’s sides.
“We are just really focused on the individual events and looking for people to swim their bests times,” said first year head coach Matt Bos. “Plus relays will obviously be big as points earned will be double. Although we have some idea of who will be on each relay unit, the final decision will come after we see how they are swimming on that day. It is a forever changing thing. We hope to take everything we have learned and trained for the last few months and take it up to Rochester and see what happens.”
The two Panther squads will look to improve on its fourth and fifth place finish for the men and women, respectively, at last year’s championships. The Panther men will be led by senior
Joe Ethington and sophomore
Tim Mathieu. Ethington has paced EIU in the 50-Free (21.85), 100-Free (47.54) and 200-Free (1:45.94). The Machesney Park, Ill., native also swam the anchor leg for Eastern’s 200-Free, 400-Free and 800-Free relay teams. Mathieu, from Oak Park, has been a solid contributor to the Panther’s team as well, posting team-best times in the 500-Free (4:49.69) and the 1,000-Free (10:21.09).
Bos will look to the seniors to help lead the team over the weekend. “Our male leaders are the members of the senior class,” he said. “They have been really strong and we will rely on them. But at the same time, we have some young guys, such as
Matt O'Hagan and
Matt Scaliatine, who have been swimming well all year. We expect to be strong in the events that we’ve been strong in all season, while also hoping that some people surprise us a little bit.”
On the women’s side, EIU sports a well-balanced team, led by juniors
Laura Nilsen and
Lauren Zillmer, as well as sophomore
Megan Eshleman. Nilsen has team-best times in the 100-Back (59.68), 200-Back (2:08.99) and the 200-IM (2:12.37). Zillmer holds the top times in the 50-Free (24.84), 100-Free (53.94) and the 200-Free (1:58.04), while Eshleman has the best team time in the 500-Free (5:19.31), 1,000-Free (10:54.19) and 1,650 Free (18:23.04).
For the women, Bos will look forward senior
Sheila Dugan to get things going. “Sheila enters the meet in the top eight in her two breast events (100 and 200). Plus Nilsen, Zillmer and Logterman have had a fine season for us and are looking very good in practice.”
The top eight finishers in each event will earn All-Conference honors over the course of the three-day meet.
While not a fortune teller, coach Bos does have a potential scenario in mind for team finishes. “After looking at all the entries to the meet, I expect Oakland to be very strong, as always, and they could easily score 900 to 1,000 points. After that, us, WIU and Centenary should battle for 400-500 points and could finish within 100 or more points from each other. So, if we swim like we have all year we should be right in there for second or third place.
Bos used the same pre-championship thinking for the women as well. “On the women’s side, it is the same thing. Oakland will be strong, while us, WIU, Centenary, and South Dakota State will battle it out for the next spot. Going in, WIU and Centenary are a bit deeper than us so we will need to make up some points and have people step up.”
SUMMIT LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Thursday, February 19
... Prelims at 11 a.m., Finals at 6:30 p.m.
200 Freestyle Relay
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
One-Meter Diving (M)
400 Medley Relay
Friday, February 20
200 Medley Relay
400 Individual Medley
100 Butterfly
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
Three-Meter Diving (W)
800 Freestyle Relay
Saturday, February 21
One-Meter Diving (W)
1650 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
Three-Meter Diving (M)
400 Freestyle Relay
More information about the Summit League Championship, including live results, can be found at Oakland’s championship
website.
… for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID