Illinois Wesleyan University’s swimming and diving teams took on the nine-team College Conference of Illinois and Winsconsin’s (CCIW) Swim and Dive Championship from Feb. 19, 2025 to Feb. 22, 2025.
The men’s team placed fifth in their division, while the women’s team came up with a fourth place finish. These finishes are exceptionally impressive considering neither the men’s or women’s team competed with a full roster. While full squads typically have 18 competitors, the women’s team had 11 swimmers and the men’s team had only five.
The Titans were also directed under temporary coaching staff. Adam Blanchard, who graduated from IWU in 2019, became interim head coach after being an intern with the swim program. Interim assistant coach Steve Paska offered his services to Illinois Wesleyan even though he retired in 2015. He was a swim coach at Illinois State for over 30 years. Kim Nelson-Brown, who is the Titan women’s volleyball head coach, has also been volunteering her time, and rode up to the conference with lone diver, first-year Sarah Worsley, before the swimmers joined the conference.
Sarah Worsley, a walk-on diver from the women’s team, was able to pull off a podium finish for the one-meter dive. She earned a score of 283.50 which secured her sixth place spot. Although not a top-three finish, Worsley said it was enough for her, considering she had never done competitive diving before arriving at IWU. “Being the only diver was interesting. It gave me more time to work on what I needed to do but didn’t give me much opportunity for friendly competitions.,” Worsley said. “Somedays, it was just me in practice so I had to keep myself motivated on days my coach couldn’t be there. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way though. It taught me so much about what I could accomplish,” she said.
Prior to diving, Worsley was a power tumbler in gymnastics. She knew she couldn’t continue when she went to college but she knew she wanted to stay active and continue to flip. “I started asking around and everyone said I should go try out diving and see what it’s like, so I did,” Worsley said. “This season couldn’t have gone better for me. I have an amazing coach and very supportive teammates so it made the transition easy for me. Going from knowing nothing to being on the podium in the conference was something I did not think would happen.”
Tate Thomas, one of only five male swimmers competing for the Titans at the meet, competed in the men’s 1650-yard freestyle. Being the only swimmer from IWU in the event, the first-year placed fifth.
Another first-year, Isabella Cano, placed 3rd in the women’s 100 yard fly, a finish that earned her first ever All-CCIW honors.
Junior Kayleigh Kuschewki is not unfamiliar with the CCIW game. She placed 2nd in the women’s 100-yard backstroke and earned All-CCIW Honors for the third time in her career. In her three individual events, she consistently placed in the top-eight.
Sophomore Sam Borre was also able to place in the top-eight in her three individual events. She took 6th in her 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard IM finals. She placed 4th in the 200-yard backstroke finals. “Conference is such a fun meet to go to. I love hearing the different team’s cheers throughout the weekend,” Borre said. “One swimmer who really impressed me was Carter. He had such a good meet overall, and watching him come back from 6th place (in prelims) in his 200 fly to getting 2nd was awesome. He really put in a lot of hard work this season.”
Senior Carter Dilger placed 2nd in the men’s 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:57.14, his last individual swim of his collegiate career. This placement was enough to earn him an All-CCIW honor.
Junior Natalie Porter placed second in the women’s 500-yard freestyle, clocking a time of 5:12.64, good for a medal and an All-CCIW nod.
On the last day of the conference, Porter won the 1650 yard freestyle, also called the metric mile, with a time of 17:40.66, which was about 30 seconds faster than the second-place finisher. Four IWU women placed in the top 8 for this event as well Sophomore Claire Paul took 7th, junior Julianna Boyle took fifth, and senior Alexa Starkey took fourth.
Starkey and senior Colin McKibben earned CCIW’s RESPECT Awards to end their last seasons with the IWU Swim and Dive team.
“Conference is the one of loudest and craziest pool environments you will be in. One of my favorite moments of the meet was on the last night of the meet before the final event,” women’s swimmer Caroline Stenger said. “They played music and we linked up for a kick line and sang along. It was silly but it was a nice way to finish off such a rigorous weekend.”
“Conference is really different from any other meet I have experienced before. It gets really loud in the pool because of all the teams and the fans cheering,” Borre said. “The walkout tunnel is also super exciting, as you are surrounded by people cheering you on and hyping you up before you swim.”
“It was so awesome how the team came together to cheer for each other and celebrate everyone’s accomplishments. Not one person would come back to the bench without a bombardment of high fives and hugs,” Stenger said.