After a last-second cancellation from North Central, the January 30 tri-meet turned into a virtual dual meet between Illinois Wesleyan and Millikan.
The IWU men’s swimming and diving teams won 155-56 and the women’s team won 177-94, which continued both teams’ win streak against Millikin dating back to 2009, totaling 12 wins in a row.
This past meet was also senior day for the lone senior on the women’s swim team, Laurin Ebert. Ebert placed second in the 1000m freestyle (11:35.17), second in the 200yd backstroke (2:22.96) and second in the 1650yd freestyle (19:11.86).
“The highlight of the meet for me was honoring our senior Laurin Ebert, who has been a wonderful teammate and leader for the past four years” junior Ellen Gilbert said.
With no family or fans allowed at the meet, the team and coaches celebrated Laurin’s four years on the team
.“The main highlight was honoring senior Laurin Ebert, who has been an A-finalist in all 3 of her events every year at CCIWs while maintaining a 3.9 GPA in biology” assistant coach Tommy Gilbert said.
Junior Ellen Gilbert also earned individual success winning the 200yd freestyle (1:59.91), the 50yd freestyle (26.25), the 200yd individual medley, which is swimming all four strokes in the same race (2:15.57).
“I expected it to be challenging to get into a racing mindset without any other teams present. But this weekend, my teammates and coaches did a great job of creating an exciting meet atmosphere,” E. Gilbert said. “We just had fun racing each other.”
Sophomore Lauren Feddersen had another dominant performance after winning the 1000yd freestyle (11:28.99), the 1650yd freestyle (19:01.19) and placing third in the 50yd freestyle (27.76).
On the men’s team they also had dominant performances from first-year diver Jack Troyer and junior Mason McCauley. Troyer repeated his victory in the 1m dive earning a personal best of 392.93.
McCauley won the 1000m freestyle (10:13.08), the 100yd backstroke (1:06.78), the 200yd backstroke (2:20.05) and the 1650yd freestyle (16:51.30).
“My goals are simply to keep swimming and improve on my season’s best times” McCauley said. McCauley went from winning three races against Augustana the previous week to winning four this meet against Millikin.
“Without knowing exactly what the end of our season will look like, our number one goal is to give every student-athlete the best championship-like experience that we can so they can reap the rewards of the work they have put in this year, despite the many obstacles they have faced” T. Gilbert said.
Both teams will travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin this Friday, Feb. 5 to compete in a tri-meet against Carroll and Carthage for what is right now the second to last weekend of competition for CCIW teams.