The Midwest Conference released its 2021 Men's Swimming and Diving Coaches Poll on Thursday, and Lake Forest College is in second place in the rankings.
Voting is done by the MWC head men's swimming and diving coaches. Each coach votes for the other eight schools in the league in order of predicted finish. Points are assigned in reverse order of voting (eight points for first, seven for second, etc.). Coaches may not vote for their own teams.
The Foresters garnered one first place vote. Six coaches in the league put Grinnell College atop the ballot, and the Pioneers' 54 points were four more than the Foresters' total. St. Norber College also earned a first-place vote.
Lake Forest finished second at the Midwest Conference Championship Meet in February 2020. Due to COVID-19, there was no swimming and diving season in 2020-21.
Returning for their senior years are current 500 and 1650 school record-holders Max Rowland and Alec Pittman; Rowland is the reigning conference champion in the 500, and Pittman topped the podium in the mile in 2020. Also returning is Graeme Witte, who was a conference champion in the 200- and 100-Freestyle. The three men made up three-fourths of the conference-winning 800 Freestyle Relay as well.
The Foresters open their season at Carthage College on Saturday, October 30 and begin their first home meet of the year is on Saturday, November 6. The 2022 conference championship meet will take place from Thursday, February 18-20.
Coach Vadim Tashlitsky returns for his 14th season as head coach of the Foresters. Under the direction of Tashlitsky, the Foresters have won the conference title in 2014 and 2015. He has been named Men's Coach of the Year twice (2010, 2015).
Combined with the women's team, Tashlitsky's athletes have now finished first at the conference meet 161 times and claimed 14 MWC Swimmer/Diver of the Year awards. Forester swimmers and divers have turned in 19 All-American (top 8 at national meet) or Honorable Mention All-American (top 16) performances in Tashlitsky's 12 seasons. The most recent honoree is Heath Ogawa, the back-to-back Division III Men's Diver of the Year who was the national champion in 3-meter diving in 2018 and in the 1-meter competition in 2019. After establishing seven new team records and a pair of conference marks in 2019-20, Tashlitsky's athletes have broken school records 106 times and set new league marks 51 times during his first 12 years as head coach.
| PLACE | TEAM (First Place Votes) | POINTS |
| 1 | Grinnell Colllege (6) | 54 |
| 2 | Lake Forest College (1) | 50 |
| 3 | St. Norber College (1) | 46 |
| 4 | Lawrence University | 36 |
| 5 | Monmouth College | 34 |
| 6 | Illinois College | 25 |
| 7 | Beloit College | 19 |
| 8 | Ripon College | 17 |
| 9 | Knox College | 7 |
Complete Midwest Conference Release