Editor’s Note: The Daily Illini sports desk sits down on Sunday nights and decides which Illinois athlete or coach is our Illini of the Week. Student-athletes and coaches are evaluated by individual performance and contribution to team success.

An individual’s path to success can take all kinds of different routes. Sometimes the route is quick and easy. Sometimes the route is well traveled, making it easy to follow. And sometimes that route takes two and a half hours to travel and forces you to use city pools just to get some practice time in.

Illinois freshman diver Lauren Wismer’s path to success was anything but easy. Three times a week, the Overland Park, Kan., native drove more than two hours to either Nebraska University or Missouri University to practice. And because her club diving team had no home pool, they were forced to fight crowds at local public pools.

“I would come to school early in the mornings and lift and condition,” Wismer said. “Then I would leave school early so I could get to practice because I had to drive two and half hours, sometimes more.”

Although her prep career may have been difficult, it seems to have paid off.

Last weekend, Wismer helped lead the Illini to two wins in two days. On Friday at Illinois State, she won both the one-meter and three-meter dives, then traveled to Southern Illinois the next day and won both events again.

Wismer is no stranger to success. In the first meet of her collegiate career, at Nebraska, she set the school record in the one-meter dive and was named Big Ten Diver of the Week, and two weeks later she went on to break the school record in the three-meter dive in a home win against Iowa State.

“I was kind of surprised she broke it that quick because it’s stood for a couple of years,” said head swimming and diving coach Sue Novitsky. “The Big Ten Diver of the Week was just the icing on the cake.”

Novitsky hopes that achieving all of this so early in her career will not lead to a diminished work ethic, in and out of the pool.

“Like with all of my athletes, I don’t want her to become complacent,” said Novitsky. “I want her to continue to work hard, be the complete student-athlete, get the full experience at Illinois.”

Head diving coach Chris Waters, who has known Wismer since she was 11, believes she has been a major part of the diving team this year.

“Obviously from the competition side, she is a nice ace in the hole. She really just enjoys and thrives in competitive situations,” Waters said. “And on top of that she fits in so well (with the rest of the team). She’s funny and comical, and very sociable.”

Wismer and Waters’ relationship dates back to seven years ago, when Wismer began attending camps at the University of Texas, where Waters helped work.

The long-standing relationship they built played an integral part in Wismer’s decision to attend Illinois.

“In diving, you have to be able to trust the coach,” said Waters. “She only looked at the schools where she knew the coaches, and on the very first day where coaches could make contact with recruits, she actually called me.”

Wismer doesn’t feel that she can take all the credit for her success this season.

“Really it’s just been the help from my coaches and the support of my teammates,” Wismer said. “Being able to practice every day and knowing my coach is going to show up really helps, too.”

Earlier in the year, Wismer’s goal was only to make it to the NCAA Zones, the qualifying round for the NCAA Championships, but with the way she is consistently performing Waters thinks she can aim higher.

“The actual NCAA Championship is a legitimate goal for her right now,” Waters said. “It would be a great accomplishment for her.”