Pleasant Prairie, Wis. -- Four days after the conclusion of the CCIW Diving Championships in Wisconsin, the league's swimming programs have returned to the Badger State for the second portion of this year's conference championships. Wednesday night marked the first of four-consecutive days during which the seven CCIW swimming squads will compete, although tonight's introductory slate saw the staging of just one race in each gender field, the 800-yard freestyle relay. A Thunder quartet topped the podium in the women's competition to ensure that Wheaton leads the team standings heading into Thursday's action.

The Orange and Blue were favorites for the title in tonight's relay event, and the Thunder squad delivered on that expectation, as Olivia Wiebe, Allison Henschel, Kate Zurowski, and Tess Boyer combined to comfortably win the race. The four-woman unit posted a season-best time of 7:46.70 to finish the competition a commanding 10.47 seconds ahead of the runners-up from Augustana College. This victory marked Wheaton's third 800 free relay title in the last four seasons and kept the crown for the program after last year's win which also involved Boyer and Wiebe. Wednesday's result represented the first gold medal at the conference meet for the freshman duo of Henschel and Zurowski.

Combining tonight's scores with the points earned by the Thunder women's divers last weekend, Wheaton sits atop the conference standings in the women's meet heading into Thursday's schedule. The Thunder are currently on 124 total points and own a 14-point lead over second place Carthage College, with Augustana not far behind in third on 93.

Event prelims are set for 10:30 AM with the finals starting at 6:00 PM on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the Pleasant Prairie RecPlex.