McLean County Times

The Illinois Wesleyan University men's and women's swimming and diving teams delivered strong performances at the Monmouth Invite hosted by Monmouth College on November 1. The women's team secured first place with 266 points, marking the program's first meet win under head coach Dan Lloyd. The men's team finished second with 166 points. Across both squads, IWU athletes achieved 23 top-three finishes, including 12 victories.

Coach Dan Lloyd commented on the team's performance: "I could not be more proud of the way our team competed today and showed heart in every race. We showed that even though we are small in numbers, we can accomplish great things. This was a huge step forward for our program and our team took great pride in representing IWU."

The men's competition began with a win in the 200-yard medley relay by seniors Jay Jenkins, Ben Huk, Jacob Nacional, and Tate Thomas. Jenkins recorded a personal-best split in the backstroke and went on to win both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke events. Nacional earned second place in the 200-yard freestyle and third in the 100-yard butterfly. Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle by nearly 14 seconds and set a new personal best while finishing third in the 200-yard individual medley. Huk claimed victory in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Lloyd praised his male swimmers: "Our men had the smallest roster out of any team at the meet, but definitely made the biggest impact," he said. "Our guys never back down from a challenge and I am extremely proud of them. They set the tone from the beginning of the meet in winning the 200 medley relay and got even stronger as the day went on."

On the women's side, Sam Borre, Kayleigh Kuschewski, Ellen Hoover, and Abby Schnittker captured first place in their own 200 medley relay event. Lloyd remarked: "Our women continued to build off of last week and really brought a lot of fight to the pool in closing out races which showed our toughness," adding that their energy was impactful throughout.

Senior Natalie Porter won both her events—the 200- and 500-yard freestyle—for a second consecutive weekend. Junior Claire Paule followed Porter for second place in one event while Kuschewski won gold in the 200 individual medley before placing second in breaststroke.

Freshman Ellen Hoover achieved her first collegiate victory by winning the women’s 100 butterfly; she also finished runner-up to Schnittker’s personal-best victory time in the women’s 100 freestyle.

Additional podium finishes came from Isabella Cano (third place, women’s 50 free), Julia Jozwiak (third place, women’s 200 free), Sam Borre (second place, women’s 100 back), among others.

The meet concluded with IWU relays earning top placements—Porter, Jozwiak, Hoover, and Schnittker combined for an eight-second margin win over other teams; another group composed of Borre, Boyle, Cano, and Paule placed third.

Illinois Wesleyan is scheduled to compete again at Olivet Nazarene University against ONU and North Central College on November 8 at Perry Center.