Pleasant Prairie, Wis. -- After four-straight days of exciting competition in the pool, the 2025 CCIW Swimming & Diving Championships drew to a close on Saturday night in Wisconsin. The Wheaton women's swimming and diving team remained in the same position it had been in since Thursday in this evening's action and finished the weekend in third place in the seven-team standings, as the reigning conference champion Augustana College retained its crown for another year. The Vikings won this season's conference title with a final tally of 831 points, second-place Carthage College earned 785.5 points, and Wheaton ended up on 751.5, the highest score for a third-place team at the conference meet since 2011 and the second-best score for the Thunder squad since 2018, behind only their championship-winning total of 789.5 in 2023. The Wheaton women collected three more event titles on Saturday, and at the end of the Championships, Tess Boyer and Lara Stamp each earned special recognition as the CCIW Women's Swimming Student-Athlete of the Meet and CCIW Diving Student-Athlete of the Meet, respectively.

Olivia Wiebe helped account for one of the aforementioned title wins for the Thunder this evening, but before that happened, the junior earned All-Conference status in the women's 200-yard backstroke via a third-place finish. Wiebe registered a time of 2:07.19 in the event to edge out her fourth-placed Illinois Wesleyan challenger by .65 second and add 16 points to Wheaton's overall total.

The Thunder's first win of the night came in the 100-yard freestyle, as Katie Yonan completed another career sweep with her fourth-consecutive title in the event. The senior ended her CCIW Championships tenure in style, posting a mark of 51.74 seconds to log her fastest title-winning time of all and make it a perfect eight-out-of-eight in the 100 and 200 freestyle races over the last four years. Yonan is the first Wheaton women's swimmer to earn four-straight titles in the 100 free since Katherine Burt achieved the same between 2005-08, and the New Jersey native is the only female swimmer in CCIW history to have won four gold medals in both the 100 and 200-yard freestyle events. (podium picture at right) 

Boyer claimed Wheaton's other individual title win on Saturday, securing the top spot on the podium in the 200-yard butterfly for the second year in a row. The sophomore swam a 2:05.14 line to improve on her 2024 winning mark by more than six seconds and narrowly missed earning her third NCAA 'B cut' time this week. Wiebe collected another All-Conference recognition in the 200 fly as the event's runner-up with a time of 2:13.08. (medal photo at left)

    The final event of the Championships was the 400-yard freestyle relay, and Wheaton ended the meet just how it began this week's slate - in victorious fashion, by scooping up its fourth relay victory of the weekend. Scottie McKeaney, Boyer, Wiebe, and Yonan combined for their second freestyle relay win of the meet following their triumph in the 800-yard edition on Wednesday and posted a time of 3:31.15 to convincingly beat out the second-placed Augustana quartet and earn Wheaton's third-consecutive title in the 400 free relay, with each win coming in a faster time than the previous year's. McKeaney and Yonan have been a part of all three triumphant relay groups in the event, while Boyer and Yonan were the constants in each of the Thunder's four relay victories this weekend. (podium photo at right) 

After all the events concluded and the scores were tallied, it came time for individual awards to be handed out by the conference to recognize the top performers of the week. Wheaton saw two of its student-athletes collect the highest prize on offer in their respective fields, as Boyer was named the CCIW Women's Swimming Student-Athlete of the Meet and Stamp was chosen as the CCIW Women's Diving Student-Athlete of the Meet.

 Boyer (pictured at left with the award plaque) earned the distinction after a dominant Championships during which she racked up three individual titles and four relay gold medals as well as two NCAA 'B cut' time marks. The second-year swimmer becomes the 15th Wheaton women's swimming student-athlete to earn the meet's highest award, including her senior teammate Yonan, who garnered the same recognition two years ago.

 Stamp (pictured at right with her award) was honored as the top female diving student-athlete of the meet after winning the 1-meter competition on Wednesday afternoon and finishing a close second in the 3-meter event. The rookie is just the second-ever recipient of the accolade since the conference began awarding it in 2024, and Stamp is the first Wheaton diver to earn the award. 

The Wheaton women's swimming and diving team will now head into its long offseason stretch with a full weekend of highlights to reflect on after another eventful conference championship program.