In the opening meet of the 2023-24 season, the Lake Forest women's swimming and diving team defeated Carthage College 194-92, while the Forester men fell to the Firebirds 173.5-116.5.

Freshmen Audrey Kilmer and Izabella Harju and sophomores Amelie Andres and Valeria Welk combined to open the women's side of the meet with a commanding win in the 200-medley relay. The race was in a dead heat between the "A" relays when Welk and the Firebird anchor dove in, and Welk was able to put her hand on the wall first, out-touching her Carthage counterpart by .08 seconds. 

Kilmer went on to post three individual wins in the 200-freestyle (2:01.91), 200-backstroke (2:10.62), and 200-IM (2:13.34). Andres posted a pair of victories in both breaststroke events with a time of 1:08.74 in the 100 and 2:29.21 in the 200. Harju won the 100-freestyle (55.93) and 100-butterfly (1:01.47), and also put up the fastest split in the field (25.07) in the women's winning 200-freestyle relay at the end of the meet.  

Also posting a pair of victories for the Forester women was senior Ally McCarthy, who won the 1000-freestyle in dominating fashion with a time of 11:04.89, which was 28 seconds faster than second place. Her time of 5:24.21 in the 500-freestyle was also good for first place. Senior diver Harriet Townsend added significant points to the women's total with her wins on the 1- and 3-meter boards. And junior Sylvie Paddon-Jones won the 50-freestyle with a time of 25.64 and was on the winning 200-freestyle relay.

While the men fell short of a win, they posted some good times and big victories throughout the meet. Freshman Gavin Biccum scored the men's first victory of the meet and made it a Forester sweep of the event with his win in the 1000-freestyle with a time of 10:07.28.

Junior Ben Jacob got his first win of the meet in the 200-freestyle when he posted the fastest time in the event (1:44.94).

Biccum and Jacob raced each other in an exciting 500-freestyle event later in the meet. Biccum led for most of the race with Jacob not too far behind and with a Carthage swimmer in the lane between them. In the last 60 yards, the Carthage swimmer made a move to overtake Biccum, but Biccum surged ahead and Jacob came right along with him. The three came barreling home in the last 25 yards, were neck-and-neck, and Jacob was able to touch first, just .31 seconds ahead of Biccum, who was a full second ahead of their opponent. 

Junior Noah McAdam added to more wins to the Foresters' tally in the 100- and 200-backstroke with times of 53.44 and 1:58.01, respectfully. 

The Foresters will race again on Saturday, November 4 at Lewis University with Eastern Illinois University at 12:00 p.m.