The Titans hit the road next week for likely their final competition of the 2025-26 season, the 2026 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Swimming Championships. They will be chasing their first CCIW title in over two decades.
The men’s and women’s teams have had many second- and third-place finishes since 2008. But the women’s team has never outright won the conference since the team’s inception in 1989, and the men’s team hasn’t won it since the 1995-96 season under former head coach Teresa Zurick Fish.
The 2026 CCIW Championship will be the first under new head coach Dan Lloyd, who took over for Fish prior to the ‘25-26 season. Lloyd previously spent the past 11 years leading the Augustana University swimming and diving programs, where he led the Vikings to six CCIW Championships.
In an interview with ‘The Argus,’ Coach Lloyd discussed the grueling 18-week season all swimmers face and how the team must prepare differently ahead of the (likely) final meet of the year.
“It’s a really challenging competition,” Lloyd said regarding the four-day CCIW Championships. “And so we have been trying to prepare for that the whole year through mental toughness and the training and preparation we’ve done.”
Lloyd talked about how IWU varies different periods of tapering for students, leading to a more personalized recovery for students instead of a mass team taper. Tapering is the part of the season where swimmers take multiple weeks to begin slowing their work load down, with the aim to increase their speed and recovery ahead of important meets.
“It’s easy for student athletes to jump the gun and think they’re ready to just go compete, but we have to go through this process of tapering down,” Lloyd said. “Right now, it’s just really staying mentally tough and focused in terms of what the goal here is: the end.”
Illinois Wesleyan will also be looking to send their first swimmers to the NCAA championship since 2018, when the women’s team sent senior Lisa Cheng, sophomore Lucy Saucedo and first-years Ellen Gilbert and Megan Wong to compete in the 200 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay events, where they placed twentieth. Swimmers do not automatically receive an invite if they win their conference and instead must have a time in the ‘A’ cut for an automatic bid or a time in the ‘B’ cut for a chance at a bid. The times for the ‘A’ and ‘B’ cuts vary each season.
One swimmer Titans fans can keep an extra eye on is senior Natalie Porter, who will be chasing one of the most elusive sports titles, the “three-peat,” as she comes into the CCIW tournament as a back-to-back champion in the 1650-yard freestyle event. Porter was the first Titan to repeat in the 1650 freestyle conference title since Meg Stanley, who finished third for the 1650 freestyle at the NCAA Division 3 National Championships and won the 500-yard freestyle in 2016.
The back-to-back champion got some practice during the Beloit Midseason Invitation on Nov. 22, 2025, logging an 18:20.54, just shy of 40 seconds slower than the 17:40.46 she swam to win her second title.
The 18:20.54 time was faster than the times of leading swimmers from six CCIW schools. The two swimmers to beat will be senior Oliva Wiebe from Wheaton, who swam an 18:05.51 on Dec. 6, 2025, and Giselle Koonce from Augustana, who swam an 18:18.00 on Jan. 17, 2026.
Porter also swam various shorter-distance freestyle events this season, most recently placing first in the 500-yard freestyle on Jan. 31, with a 5:20.01 during the senior day meet against Monmouth.
Porter was unavailable for comments, but Lloyd said she was a “very dedicated athlete” and that he wouldn’t put pressure on her nor any of the team’s athletes to chase expectations or records.
“I told our kids, ‘We’ve focused on competing with nothing to lose,’” Lloyd said, “When you go in and have nothing to lose, you are a dangerous swimmer, because you don’t have the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
The Titans kick off at the four-day CCIW Championships at the RecPlex in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
