Chicago, Ill. -- The Wheaton swimming and diving teams began their 2023-24 seasons on Saturday afternoon by heading into the Windy City to take part in the University of Chicago's quad meet alongside Illinois Institute of Technology and Olivet Nazarene University. The Thunder men's and women's squads faced off against the other three schools in a dual meet format, and their lone head-to-head victory of Saturday's action came when the Wheaton women defeated IIT by a score of 178-83. 

The Thunder men began the day's action with a solid showing in the 200-yard medley relay, as a pair of Wheaton quartets placed back-to-back in fifth and sixth in the 13-team field. Connor Davis, Anthony Fitzgerald, AJ Staiti, and Kaden Gannon teamed up to earn a time of 1:36.89, and this was marginally faster than the fellow Wheaton combination of Ben Fox, Andrew Rogers, Ben Coley, and Josh Elsen, who came in sixth place.

Isaac Eilmes swam to a fourth-placed showing in his collegiate debut event, the 1000 yard freestyle. Fitzgerald then earned two more solid standings in the two breaststroke competitions, first placing third in the 100-yard version by a margin of just .02 seconds before later registering a second-placed finish in the 200-yard breast via a time of 2:08.58. Elsen also posted a solid solo race performance on Saturday, coming in eighth in the 50 yard free out of the 19 swimmers in the field. Davis carved out a finish in the top half of his 200 yard IM field, swimming to a 2:07.08 time mark and sixth-placed spot.

The Thunder men's team will return to action in two weeks' time as Wheaton heads to Wisconsin to take on UW-Milwaukee in a dual meet.