Results (html)

CHARLESTON, Ill. – The 2013-14 IUPUI men's and women's swimming and diving season kicked off Friday evening in Charleston, Ill., and both the men's and women's programs emerged with victories over Summit League foe Eastern Illinois.

Friday's meet against the Panthers was non-traditional in that it featured mixed relays and a handful of 50 yard stroke events. Despite the unique events, the men's team won 72-36, while the women's team earned an 80-30 victory.

"I thought we got off to a good start and had some really good swims out there from a lot of different people," head coach Matt Bos said. "I could definitely see that we had some rust, but it was our first competition and it is something to build off of."

The meet featured six relays, two of which were mixed, and eight 50-yard stroke events. Of the 14 total events, IUPUI claimed 13 victories.

The night started off with Alexus Laird, Jennifer Oleksiak, Adam Ferguson and Lennart Kuester combining for a winning time of 1:42.77 in the mixed 200 medley relay. The men's and women's 1,000 freestyle relays ensued and the Jags easily claimed victories with the women's quartet of Margaret Barber, Peyton Zehner, Natalie Trout and Vanessa Roop winning by nearly 24 seconds, and the men's foursome of Daniel Saunders, James Salmon, Rich Sunkel and Daniel Heringer earning nearly a three-second triumph.

The eight 50-yard stroke events came next with IUPUI claiming seven wins. Madeline Bradford (50 fly), Sarah Rozow (50 back), Laird (50 free) and Oleksiak (50 breast), earned all four victories in the stroke events on the women's side, while Josh Garmon, Tony Carroll and Landon Mintch touched the wall first in the 50 fly, 50 free and 50 breast, respectively.

To close out the night, the Jags cruised to victories in the men's and women's 400 medley relays and the mixed 200 freestyle relay.

Both teams return to action tomorrow in a tradition dual meet format against the Panthers and Illinois-Chicago. The meet is set to begin at 2 p.m. ET.