The 2024-25 swimming and diving season opens Friday at Cleveland State

YPSILANTI, Michigan (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University swimming and diving team will travel to Cleveland, Ohio, where it will open its 2024-25 season with a meet against the Cleveland State University Vikings on Friday, Oct. 18, 3 p.m

Fans can stay tuned to EMUEagles.com for a post-meet recap with full results attached. Additionally, stay tuned to the team’s social media accounts on Instagram, X and Facebook for live in-meet content.

ALL TIME AGAINST CLEVELAND STATE

The Eagles have a perfect 12-0 record against the Vikings, dating back to the first ever meeting between the two institutions on November 9, 1990, in which the Eagles won 164-134. The Eagles and Vikings last met on Nov. 12 during the 2004-05 season when Eastern defeated CSU 169-66. On average, Eastern has won games against Cleveland State by 64 points.

ENTERING THE SIXTH YEAR UNDER PERKINS

The program is entering its sixth year under the direction of the head swimming coach Derek Perkins. Overall, Perkins holds a 12-19 record and a 9-10 mark in Mid-American Conference (MAC) competition. The program featured 64 Academic All-MAC selections and four College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-America teams.

THE PRESUMED SEASON
Eastern will compete in nine regular season meets in 2024-25, culminating in the MAC Championships Feb. 26-March 1. The Eagles will participate in meets at Michigan State, Ohio State, New York State, Florida State and Washington State.



TOM GIMM – HEAD DIVER
Perkins announced the hiring of Tom Gimm as head diving coach of the Eagles, June 20. Gimm brings extensive club coaching experience and has also coached in the MAC, having served as head diving coach at Ohio University from 2016-2018. Gimm most recently served as Head Diving Coach/Director of Diving Operations for Moss Farms Diving, a junior diving powerhouse with a state-of-the-art facility in Moultrie, Georgia. Most recently, his Flying Tigers placed second in the 2024 U.S. Diving Zone B Championships held at the Moss Farms Diving Facility. Gimm also coached high school star Tuck Gregory to the Georgia High School Association individual state championship in 2024.



RETURNER/NEW ARRIVAL
This year’s Eagles team returns 23 letterwinners from the 2023-24 squad and welcomes nine newcomers to the team, including all freshmen Riess Estep (Smyrna, Ga./Whitefield Academy), Aisling Gutierrez (New Kent, Virginia/New Kent), Nehir Guven (Istanbul, Türkiye/Istek Atanur Oguz Okullari), Rose Kendrick (Geneva, NY/Geneva), Megan Lupa (Campden, Ontario/West Niagara Secondary), Nehir Oz (Istanbul, Türkiye/Cevre), Taityn Speier (Fairfax, Va./WT Woodson), Azra Umut (Istanbul, Türkiye/Fenerbahce School)And Adley Zamore (Tampa, Florida/HB Plant).

DIVE GUIDE
On the boards, the Eastern team is led by an experienced diver Rebecca Knapp (Mesa, Arizona/Skyline)who placed second in the 3-meter dive at the MAC Championships last season with a personal best score of 301.15.



SWIMMING GUIDE
The Eagles return to the pool Kiersten Russell (Clinton, Michigan/Saline)who posted the fifth-fastest 100 backstroke time in program history at 54.33. Russell is to join Nina Larosa (Bay Village, Ohio/Bay), who posted the program’s eighth-best 100 breaststroke time of 1:03.00 as a freshman last season. Below Russell and Larosa is Abby Szadorski (Oswego, Ill./Oswego East), who improved on her eighth-best program time in the 200 breaststroke, finishing the event in 2:16.60.



MAC COACHES PRE-SEASON POLL
In a poll of the MAC’s eight head coaches, the Eagles’ team was picked to finish sixth in the MAC standings for the upcoming 2024-25 season.



NEXT
The Eagles next open MAC competition at the University at Buffalo on Saturday, October 26, 11 a.m. The meet will be the first of three meets in Western New York for Eastern as its divers will participate in the UB Diving Invite on Jan. 10. 12, followed by the MAC Championships from February 26th to March 1st.



FOLLOW US
Stay tuned to EMUEagles.com and follow the team’s social media accounts on Instagram, X and Facebook for the latest on EMU swimming and diving.