The Midwest Conference released its 2026-27 Women's Swimming and Diving Coaches Poll Thursday afternoon and Lake Forest College was third in the rankings.

Voting is done by the MWC head men's swimming and diving coaches. Each coach votes for the other nine schools in the league in order of predicted finish. Points are assigned in reverse order of voting (nine points for first, eight for second, etc.). Coaches may not vote for their own teams.

Grinnell College was atop the list after receiving eight first place votes and tallying 80 points. Luther College and the Foresters split the other two first-place votes and tallied 65 and 62 points, respectively. St. Norbert College (61 points) and Milwaukee School of Engieering (56) were not far behind.

Lake Forest placed third at each of the last three MWC Championships.

Among the team's returners are the MWC Swimmers of the Year for the last three seasons in Isabella Rozenbergas (2025 and 2026) and Audrey Kilmer (2024) and another member of the Foresters' championship-winning 200-, 400-, and 800-freestyle relays from last year in Joss Hoffman. Four of their teammates also posted top-8 finishes at last year's conference meet.

The Foresters open their first season with Eric Skelly as head coach with a dual meet at Carthage College on Saturday, October 23. After competing in three additional duals, a double dual, a pair of invitationals, and a quadrangular, the team will travel to Grinnell for the 2027 MWC Championship Meet February 18-21.

Lake Forest has finished among the top three in the league at 16 of the last 17 championship meets. The team's last conference title came in 2020.