The Lake Forest College swimming and diving team spent the weekend competing in the Midwest Conference Championship Meet in Grinnell, Iowa, where the Forester men and women finished in third place.

Sunday's finals session began with a pair of Lake Forest victories. Freshman Gavin Biccum touched the wall first in the men's 1650-freestyle and his time of 16:06.52 is the best in program history. He also set a team record in the 1000-freestyle along the way, completing that part of the race in 9:43.80. Senior Ally McCarthy then successfully defended her title in the women's 1650, finishing in 17:45.55. She has contributed to eight conference championship performances over the last three years, including five in individual events. Fellow Forester senior Ella Burns added a third place finish and clocking of 18:09.01 in the women's race.

The 200-backstroke was next and a pair of Lake Forest men had qualified for the A-final. Junior Noah McAdam placed third with a time of 1:52.25 and sophomore Shea Stauffer was fifth in 1:58.70. The women's event was won by Forester freshman Audrey Kilmer in 2:06.67. She added that title to those she had already earned in Friday's 200-IM and Saturday's 400-IM.

A pair of Lake Forest women advanced to the A-final in the 100-freestyle. Sophomore Valeria Welk placed sixth in 54.55 seconds and junior Sylvie Paddon-Jones was eighth in 54.84. Both swimmers were slightly faster in the morning prelims with matching times of 54.48 seconds.

Sophomore Andrew Lee was the team's top finisher in the men's 200-breaststroke, which he completed in 2:13.54. He placed sixth, just one place and .11 seconds ahead of senior Luke Bedalov. Sophomore Amelie Andres was the runner-up in the women's race with a time of 2:24.73.

The final individual event at the meet was the 200-butterfly. Junior Ben Jacob (1:57.35) and freshmen Clayton Berg (1:57.99) and Ethan Oller (1:59.43) were fourth, fifth, and sixth in the men's race while junior Michelle Paddon-Jones (2:11.40) placed third and freshman Izabella Harju (2:14.11) fifth on the women's side.

The Foresters closed out the meet with second-place finishes in both 400-freestyle relays. The 3:08.42 posted by the men's quartet of McAdam, sophomores Demetri Zemenides and Alexander Wilson, and freshman Ben Scott ranks fourth in program history while Kilmer set a school record with a 100-freestyle leadoff split of 52.78 seconds in the women's race. She was followed by Welk, Sylvie Paddon-Jones, and Harju and their time was 3:34.84.

The Lake Forest women finished the weekend with 644.5 points, trailing only Grinnell College's 864 and St. Norbert College's 733. The Forester men's 552 points were just 18.5 fewer than St. Norbert's total while Grinnell earned 987.5.

Major awards were presented after the meet and a trio of Lake Forest swimmers were among the honorees on the women's side. Kilmer was named Swimmer of the Year, Harju Newcomer of the Year, and junior Caprice Kalvelage the MWC Elite 20 Award winner for the second year in a row for possessing the highest cumulative grade point average in the league.

Lake Forest swimmers and divers won eight events, set three school records, and made eight additional updates to the program's list of the top five performances in each event.