Though it’s only the third week of practice, the Eau Claire men’s and women’s swim teams are getting the season going, and will have their first home meets of the season on Saturday.

The Midwest Coed Relay Meet will take place on Saturday at McPhee, with UW-Oshkosh, UW-River Falls, Minnesota State-Mankato and St. Cloud State of Minnesota coming to Eau Claire.

The meet will be an unusual one in that each relay will consist of two men and two women.

“It’s an early season meet, so it’s kind of a fun meet,” head coach Rob Welcher said. “We’re not super concerned with whether we win or lose.”

Junior Kristjana Marston said that the team doesn’t feel too much pressure with the coed meet.

“It’s the funnest meet we have,” she said. “You usually pick a relay that is your stronger event, so there’s a higher level of competition, but there isn’t much stress.”

The Blugolds will face some tough competition in the meet, as both St. Cloud and Mankato are Div. II schools.

Welcher said that Eau Claire hasn’t gone against St. Cloud much in recent years, but that the team is very fast.

The meet is Eau Claire’s second of the year against outside competition. On Friday, they went to Mankato to compete in the Maverick Pentathalon.

The Maverick Pentathalon was another unusual meet, as each swimmer competed in five events – the freestyle, the breaststroke, the individual medley, the backstroke and the butterfly.

The scoring of the meet was also unusual, as scores were broken down by team and by class.

“It was an extremely weird format,” Marston said. “But it was actually fun, because you got a chance to swim events you don’t normally do.”

Welcher said that the team did well in the early-season meet.

“Some people are looking really good,” he said. “They’re swimming technically well, and they’re learning to pick it up.”

The Eau Claire men won the team competition of the event over Mankato and River Falls.

Senior Matt Oglesby had the fastest individual time in the meet, finishing nine seconds in front of Mankato’s Mike Maynard.

Senior Kyle Gulbrandson placed fourth in the men’s competition, helping the Eau Claire seniors set a meet record for its class.

Sophomore Liz VonFeldt was the highest finisher for the women, finishing the meet in third place, only a second behind Mankato’s Mandi Bowman.

Though the Eau Claire women didn’t have enough competitors to qualify for the overall team title, the sophomore class took first in the meet.

Mankato won the women’s team event, with River Falls placing second and Minnesota State-Moorhead taking third.

Welcher said that the team is progressing well this season, but he said that the team hasn’t done much sprinting this year.

The Blugolds will have a chance to work onits sprinting in the Coed Relays, with St. Cloud and Mankato there to give it a challenge.

The diving competition will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, with the racing beginning at noon.