CHARLESTON, Ill. – Western Illinois swimming opened weekend action on Friday (Jan. 24) against in-state foe Eastern Illinois. The Leatherneck men came away with a 105-100 victory, while the Western women fell 146-57.

Western saw 12 season-highs during competition, with four individual victories and two relay wins.

“We had a pretty solid meet with some good swims. We are definitely racing smarter which is a typical sign at this time of the year,” said head coach Greg Naumann. “We should also start to see some faster swims in the near future. We will have a tough turnaround going to Saint Louis tomorrow, but I would expect us to still see similar results.”

True-freshman Chris Neaveill was victorious in the 100-fly (51.15) and also was apart of both winning relay teams. Neaveill teamed up with brother Tyler Neaveill, Jonathan Bond and JD Furr to win the 200-medley relay in a time of 1:36.61. The Neaveills, Dylon Rykosky and Austin Payne combined to win the 200-free relay in a time of 1:26.51.

Furr added an individual victory in the 100-breaststroke after touching the wall in 1:01.00. Matt Abercrombie posted a victory in 400-IM (4:15.46), while Julia Rassmussen recorded a win in the 50-free with a time of 25.21 seconds.

The Leatherneck swimmers will now head to St. Louis, Mo. for a meet against Saint Louis University on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 25). Western diving will head to Chicago to compete in the Flames Natatorium on Saturday.