Illinois swim and dive had an exciting first half to its season, sitting at 2-2 through the first two months of competition. There are 12 fresh faces on the team mixed in with all the returning athletes, and the program has already seen amazing accomplishments so far.
In the annual Orange vs. Blue intra-team meet, Team Blue reached the wall first for the win by a score of 150-138. The schedule truly began when the Illini traveled to Kansas for their first official meet of the season, where they unfortunately fell shallow against the Jayhawks (131-169).
A trip to California brought mixed results for the Illini. The team started its West Coast meets opposite Pepperdine, where it came out on top with a score of 164-75. However, the Illini were bested the next day when competing against UCLA. A tough matchup for the Illini resulted in a loss with a score of 73.5-167.5.
The Illini left California with an overall record of 1-2, so it was crucial for them to win their next meet against Vanderbilt. It was a great bounceback for Illinois, which won by a score of 156-106 and earned five new pool records on top of the win.
“This is one of the best Vanderbilt teams that I’ve seen in a long time,” noted head coach Jeana Kempe. “A big goal we had as a program (was) to beat Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt is a much-improved team, and they have been over the last couple of years. For us, it was a huge boat of confidence moving forward.”
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Following the win, Illinois prepared for its next challenge — a midseason meet at Purdue. Held in November, the Boilermaker Invitational was the first time Illinois competed against multiple schools in the same meet.
The three days in West Lafayette, Indiana, were a huge success for the team as well. They stayed consistent throughout and placed third out of eight teams who competed. Illinois was only behind Purdue and Northwestern, which are some of the best teams in the conference.
A trio of school records were broken when it was time to head home. Junior Suvana Baskar, freshman Kylee Sessions, junior Logan Kuehne and senior Lily Olson shattered the school record in the 200 medley relay by over a half second — good for a second-place finish in the event. Baskar also finished second with a time of 53.66 in the 100 backstroke, breaking the school record for that event. Junior Sydney Stoll helped add to the record-breaking weekend with a 54.24 in the 100 butterfly.
To Kempe, Illinois is still capable of achieving more, and this isn’t even the beginning of what the new team can accomplish. With fresh talent, a happy atmosphere in day-to-day practice and the desire to win, there is no telling how high the Illini can go.
“Even as a coach, I don’t even know if we’ve cracked that next level of potential,” Kempe said. “We’re kind of in this waiting period, and one day, it’s going to come out there and it’s going to be even better than what we’ve seen on the outside looking into the program.”
Illinois swim and dive resumed its schedule on Jan. 12 and have traveled to two more meets since. On Jan. 27, the Illini will host Nebraska for senior day — as the Big Ten championships draw ever nearer.
