Wheaton, Ill. -- After a month away from competition following the Wheaton Invite, the Thunder swimming & diving teams returned to the pool this afternoon for their first taste of competitive action in 2025. Wheaton welcomed two MIAA programs, Hope College and Kalamazoo College, to Lederhouse Natatorium for the Illinois-Michigan tri meet. Lake Forest College was originally slated to take part, as well, and make today's event a quad meet, but the team was unable to participate and will instead face Wheaton in a dual next Saturday. Hope, ranked 11th in the country on the women's side and 17th on the men's, finished first place this afternoon, while both Thunder squads placed second. The final scores for the men's competition were
Hope - 538,
Wheaton - 429,
Kalamazoo - 208, while the tallies for the women's meet read
Hope - 577,
Wheaton - 304,
Kalamazoo - 277.
Tess Boyer captured the only individual event win for the Wheaton women's squad on Saturday, and the sophomore did so in impressive fashion, establishing a new meet record in the 200 yard IM. Her mark of 2:08.78 blew past the previous standard of 2:10.28 that was set by Wheaton's Kayla Roberson eight years ago and was at least three seconds faster than all of her competitors in today's field.
Olivia Wiebe secured a runner-up finish in the first individual race of the afternoon, the women's 1000 yard freestyle, and
Katie Yonan earned the same placement in the 200 yard edition as one of just two swimmers to finish the event in under two minutes. Wiebe also registered a third-place standing in the 200 yard butterfly, finishing an impressive 5.6 seconds ahead of the fourth-placed Hope swimmer. Yonan then grabbed her second runner-up showing of the day in the 100 free with a time of 54.83.
Boyer had to settle for second place in the women's 200 yard backstroke when a Hope swimmer set a new meet record, but the Kansas native still posted a noteworthy time of 2:07.28, nine seconds quicker than the Flying Dutch swimmer in third place.
Three Wheaton women's divers took part in Saturday's meet, but
Lara Stamp (pictured right) was the only one to compete on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. The rookie
tallied a total of 203.10 to finish third in the 11-diver 1-meter field that included teammates
Isabelle Fitzpatrick and
Julia Buchenauer. The Indiana native then registered a score of 206.05 to place fourth in the 3-meter competition. Her 11-dive total mark now ranks second in program history.
Jac Cummings, David Stevenson, Ben Fox, and Kaden Gannon earned a runner-up finish in the first event of the men's program this afternoon, the 400 yard medley relay, and the former two of these teammates were part of a group of four men's swimmers who earned individual event wins for Wheaton today.
The Thunder men's team was led on Saturday by freshman Jed Ritchie, who continued his impressive first season in record-setting fashion this afternoon. The rookie from Pennsylvania won the first solo race of the men's meet, the 1000 yard freestyle, with a blistering time of 9:41.16, a new meet record that shattered the previous mark of 9:44.05 that was set over 20 years ago by a swimmer from Hope. Remarkably, the runner-up in today's 1000 yard free also hailed from Hope and also broke the 2003 record time with a mark of 9:41.34. He was 17.5 seconds faster than his teammate who came in third but not quite fast enough to pip Ritchie to the finish line. The Wheaton swimmer's time mark is the second-fastest in program history in this event and the top time in the CCIW this season. Ritchie followed this up by topping the field in the 200 yard butterfly as the only competitor to complete the event in less than two minutes (1:58.71) and claimed his second solo win of the day.
The aforementioned Cummings joined his fellow first-year on a pair of race wins this afternoon to help power the Wheaton men's squad. The freshman from Georgia placed first in the 200 yard IM with a mark of 2:00.22, before also topping the podium in the 200 backstroke via a similar 2:00.49 time, just edging out his relay teammate Fox who came in second at 2:01.42.
The pair's relay partner Stevenson secured a first-place standing in the men's 200 yard breaststroke courtesy of a 2:13.78 time mark, while Isaac Eilmes also earned an event win with his showing in the 500 free, posting a time of 4:52.87 to lead the 12-man field.
Philip Holst snagged a runner-up placement in the 200 fly. Ben Coley came in third in the 100 yard freestyle, while Coley, Sam Yonan, and Eilmes went 4-5-6 in the strong 15-swimmer field of the men's 200 free this afternoon.
Two male divers competed for Wheaton on Saturday, as Mateo Anderson and Wade Watkins participated in the 1-meter and 3-meter events. Anderson placed second in both fields with totals of 211.50 in the 1-meter and 197.90 in the 3-meter dives. Watkins earned scores of 127.60 and 134.55, respectively.
The Wheaton squads will return to Lederhouse Natatorium next Saturday afternoon to face Lake Forest in their rearranged dual meet that is set for a 1 PM start.
