Kenosha & Pleasant Prairie, Wis. -- After weeks of preparation and anticipation, the 2025 CCIW Swimming & Diving Championships finally got underway in Wisconsin on Wednesday. The diving competitions were once again held on the campus of Carthage College a day before the swimming program is set to begin in earnest in nearby Pleasant Prairie. But the order of events was adjusted slightly this year, with the men's and women's 800-yard freestyle relays moved up to Wednesday, meaning that today saw both diving and swimming competition take place. The Thunder squads enjoyed strong performances in both areas this evening, and Wheaton had two first-place finishes to celebrate, both from the women's team. Freshman Lara Stamp claimed the conference crown in the women's 1-meter diving event, before four Thunder swimmers combined to top the podium in the women's 800 free. With all the scores tallied from Wednesday's combined action, the Wheaton men's team leads the early standings with 165 points, 23 points ahead of second-placed Carthage, while the Thunder women are in second place on a total of 120, 20 points behind the frontrunning Firebirds and 26 ahead of third-placed Augustana College.

The very first event of this year's Championships yielded a victory for Wheaton, as the standout rookie Lara Stamp took first place in the women's 1-meter diving competition. Participating alongside ten other divers, Stamp registered a final score of 341.95 to top the field and win the event by an impressive margin of 28.2 over the runner-up from Carthage. This result proved historic, as it made Stamp the first women's diver in program history to earn the CCIW title in 1-meter diving, with the Indiana native doing so in her first attempt. (podium medal picture at right) Three of Stamp's teammates took part in the 1-meter competition, with Renata Marantz earning 11 points for Wheaton as the Thunder's next-highest finisher. The sophomore registered a mark of 239.25, while Isabelle Fitzpatrick and Julia Buchenauer tallied scores of 228.45 and 224.25, respectively.

Stamp nearly completed the sweep by winning the 3-meter event, as well, but she ultimately finished in second place, just 2.6 points behind the Firebirds diver who placed second in the 1-meter field. The freshman earned a mark of 296.00 in the six-diver competition. Marantz posted a score of 232.95 in the event.

The Wheaton men's diving team did not have a conference champion on Wednesday, but two of its members achieved runner-up finishes. Zander Guzy tallied a score of 297.90 in the 1-meter event of his final conference meet to come in second in the ten-diver field. Half of the participants in this competition hailed from Wheaton, and Mateo Anderson was the Thunder's next-highest finisher in fourth place with a total of 290.45. Josiah Ferguson, Wade Watkins, and Tristen Guzman went seven-eight-nine in the standings, posting marks of 219.25, 215.60, and 214.95, respectively.

Then it was Anderson's turn to secure a second-place finish. The junior tallied a score of 340.45 on the 3-meter board to earn runner-up honors and contribute 17 more points to Wheaton's cause. (medal picture below) Guzy came in fourth place in the 3-meter competition via a mark of 295.80. Guzman was sixth in the ten-man event with a total of 248.95, while Ferguson registered a 228.85 tally and Watkins earned a score of 207.40.

 

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Taking after its diving squad, the Wheaton women's swim team also began its Championship stay with a place atop the podium. A quartet of Katie Yonan, Scottie McKeaney, Olivia Wiebe, and Tess Boyer combined to place first in the 800-yard freestyle relay on Wednesday. The four-woman team registered a combined time of 7:40.08 to beat the second-placed Augustana contingent to the wall by a comfortable 8.36-second margin. This performance returned the 800 free relay crown to Wheaton after the Thunder last won the event in 2023, courtesy of McKeaney, Wiebe, and Yonan on that occasion, as well. 

The Thunder men's squad could not match this accomplishment but still secured a third-place showing and 28 points on the scoreboard thanks to a group consisting of Ben Coley, Jed Ritchie, Isaac Eilmes, and Jac Cummings, These four posted a total time of 6:52.83 in the 800 free relay to finish the race a mammoth 22 seconds ahead of the fourth-placed Illinois Wesleyan quartet and only 3.6 seconds behind the Carthage team in second.

The diving portion of this year's Championships is now complete, and the next three days will be entirely swimming-focused. Event prelims begin at 10:30 AM on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday inside the Pleasant Prairie RecPlex, with competition finals scheduled to start at approximately 6 PM each evening. Augustana is the reigning conference champion in both men's and women's swimming and diving. The Wheaton women's squad is aiming for a record-extending 27th CCIW title this week after capturing its 26th two years ago, while the Thunder men's team is seeking its first conference crown since 2014 and a league-best 28th overall.