McLean County Times

The Illinois Wesleyan University men's and women's swimming and diving teams began their 2025-26 season by hosting the IWU Halloween Invite on Saturday, October 25 in Bloomington, Illinois. The women's team secured a second-place finish, while the men's team finished fourth.

This meet was the first for new head coach Dan Lloyd and assistant coach Brooke Walker. Under their guidance, Illinois Wesleyan achieved seven first-place finishes during the event.

In the opening relay for the women, the 500-yard freestyle team—composed of Ellen Hoover, Claire Paule, Julianna Boyle, and Natalie Porter—placed third with a time of 5:06.24. This result was nearly five seconds faster than their entry time.

Illinois Wesleyan took first place in both the 3x100-yard butterfly relay and backstroke relay. In the butterfly relay, Hoover teamed with Abby Schnittker and Isabella Cano to finish at 3:09.29—almost eleven seconds ahead of their seed time and one second ahead of Rose-Hulman’s second-place squad. The backstroke trio of Kayleigh Kuschewski, Sam Borre, and Porter won with a time of 3:08.01.

The women’s breaststroke relay finished second after improving its entry time by nearly nine seconds. Kuschewski also earned individual honors by winning the 200 breaststroke in 2:35.16.

Senior Natalie Porter led individually for Illinois Wesleyan's women’s team with victories in both the 200 free (2:01.98) and 500 free (5:25.83). Freshman Ellen Hoover finished second in her collegiate debut in the 200 fly (2:24.59), while Schnittker placed second in the 100 free (55.49).

The women's medley relay team narrowly missed out on first place to Augustana but posted a time of 1:58.44.

On the men’s side, Illinois Wesleyan’s top result came from a runner-up finish in the medley relay at 1:41.16—a five-second improvement over their entry time—with Jay Jenkins, Ben Huk, Jacob Nacional, and Tate Thomas swimming for IWU.

Tate Thomas contributed to strong individual performances for IWU men by winning the 200 free (1:47.21) and finishing second in the 500 free (4:57.32). Huk placed fifth in the men’s 50 free (23.98) and third in the men’s 200 breaststroke (2:19.32). Jenkins recorded a runner-up performance in his event as well—the men's 200 backstroke at a time of 2:05.44.

Jacob Nacional registered two top-five finishes on his events—fourth place in men’s butterfly (2:08.97) and fifth place in men’s freestyle (51.48).

Illinois Wesleyan will continue its season next Saturday at Monmouth College's Monmouth Invite inside Pepper Natatorium beginning at 1 p.m.