The NIU men’s and women’s swimming teams took to the road Saturday and found themselves coming home with two defeats.

In their first action of the season, the Huskie men fell to Western Illinois University 126-117 at Macomb. After winning last week at Wisconsin-Green Bay, the NIU women were defeated by the Leathernecks 137-106.

The men were paced by Mark Oostman and Bryan Hanania. Oostman finished first for the Huskies in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:01.36 and also captured the 200-yard breaststroke with a winning time of 2:15.21.

Hanania won both diving events. He captured the one-meter dive with a 282.53 tally and won the three-meter dive with a 290.63.

Scott Adams posted victory in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:59.88, and the combination of Craig Hammet, Art Sanchez, Oostman and Adams captured the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:37.08.

While first-year coach Jeanne Fleck may have been satisfied with some of the results, she pointed to the lack of inexperience as a key to the meet.

“Our freshman need to learn more about strategy and pacing,” she said. “While the overall time may have been good, we’ve got to be faster in the latter half of the race than the first half.”

On the women’s side, Kristin Scholz posted two wins. She took the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:00.23 and captured the 200-yard backstroke with a mark of 2:12.09.

Pam Jackson made her season debut with two victories. She posted a :25.73 to capture the 50-yard freestyle and won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of :55.99.

The tandem of Jackson, Scholz, Kim Bell and Jen Mueller posted a 3:45.04 to capture the 400-yard freestyle relay.

“From a team standpoint, the positive side was that we got up and raced, the down side was that we didn’t get out fast enough,” Fleck said.