The Midwest Conference released its 2021 Women'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 women'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.
Lake Forest garnered two first place votes. Six coaches in the league put Grinnell College atop the ballot, and the Pioneers' 55 points were four more than the Foresters' total.
The Foresters are the reigning Midwest Conference Champions since winning the title in 2020. Due to COVID-19, there was no swimming and diving season in 2020-21.
Returning for her junior year is Violet Anderson, the current school record-holder in the 100- and 200-butterfly; her time in the 100-butterfly also tied the conference record. Anderson won both butterfly events along with the 200 IM at the last conference meet. She's joined by senior Kerry Mullen, who topped the podium in the 50-freestyle in 2020. Anderson and Mullen were both on the conference-winning and school- and conference-record breaking 200 freestyle relay; they were joined in that event by Kylie Morgan, who also returns for her senior year. Morgan and Anderson were also conference champions in the 400 freestyle relay and joining them for that race is returning-senior Sarah Burchart. Burchart was part of the conference-winning 200 medley relay as well.
The Foresters open their season at Carthage College on Saturday, October 30 and will host their first home meet of the year is on Saturday, November 6. The 2022 conference championship meet will take place from Friday, February 18 to Sunday, February 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 2012 and 2020. He has been named Women's Coach of the Year five times (2010-13, 2020).
Combined with the men'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) | 55 |
| 2 | Lake Forest College (2) | 51 |
| 3 | Lawrence University | 43 |
| 4 | St. Norbert College | 42 |
| 5 | Illinois College | 26 |
| 6 | Ripon College | 25 |
| 7 | Monmouth College | 22 |
| 8 | Beloit College | 16 |
| 9 | Knox College | 8 |
Complete Midwest Conference Release