After a season filled with broken records and overall improvement, the Illini ended 2023 with an impressive 2-2 record and a third-place finish in their midseason meet. However, the tempo has shifted since the turn of the calendar and they are going into Saturday’s meet with a 2-5 record.
The Illini started their 2024 at home against Iowa, where the team suffered a loss in their first Big Ten dual meet (166.5-133.5). Despite the drastic differential, the Illini still walked away with wins in five events.
One of those wins was by senior freestyle Laurel Bludgen, who believes that the team’s energy is on the rise despite their string of tough losses. Little wins, such as Bludgen’s 23.76 on the 50 freestyle, can make all the difference.
“The team energy is up,” Bludgen said. “We’ve been working really hard, being here all of January. Although we did have three losses, there were a lot of little wins throughout each meet. I think we just want to build off of that and put our best performance up for Nebraska since it is our last dual meet of the season.”
The remaining wins against Iowa came from junior freestyle Sydney Stoll, senior free/fly Lily Olson, sophomore IM/free Adelaide Reaser and freshman diver Matilda Garcia. Stoll earned a win in both the 200 freestyle and 200 backstroke, swimming a 1:50.80 and 2:02.41 respectively for those events. Olson swam a 51.73 for the 100 freestyle and Reaser’s 10:21.16 on the 1000 freestyle was good for first. On the boards, Garcia earned an NCAA B cut for her performance on the three-meter boards.
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A tri-meet at Purdue was where Illinois suffered its next two losses. In the one-day event, Illinois fell 208-92 to Purdue and 195-105 to Missouri. It was the second time Illinois and Purdue have met this season, with both meets serving as great experiences for the Purdue-hosted Big Ten championships. Freshman diver Elle Crisostomo with a score of 215.35 on the platform dives, placed fourth and was the program’s eighth-highest score ever. With a score of 287.35 for the three-meter exhibition, Garcia also saw a personal best. Crisostomo also had a new personal best on the three-meter dive with her score of 270.95.
Stoll continued to rack up event wins, with three victories at the tri-meet coming in the 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 200 IM with times of 1:50.11, 54.84 and 2:02.13 respectively.
Ahead of senior night, Bludgen is excited that she will get to be surrounded by her family and teammates, noting that the years have gone by super fast.
“I’m so excited,” Bludgen said. “It’s just crazy that it’s already my senior year, I mean the four years just, just went so fast, it’s a little surreal. It’s crazy that it’ll be my last home meet at the ARC,. It’ll be nice to have my family and all my teammates around me for it.”
It is senior night for the Illini this Saturday at 11 a.m. in the ARC pool as they host their final dual meet of the season against Nebraska.
