The Midwest Conference released its 2026-27 Men's Swimming and Diving Coaches Poll Thursday morning and the Foresters were picked to finish fourth.

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 ballots of eight of the 10 coaches in the league and finished with 80 points. Milwaukee School of Engineering and Luther College split the other two first-place votes and tallied 71 and 60 points, respectively. The Foresters were one point ahead of St. Norbert College for fourth with 56.

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

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.

Gavin Biccum and Matthew Strada have combined to claim three league titles in the 1650-freestyle and another in the 400-IM during their careers. They are among 100 men in program history to win an event at the MWC Championships and four other returners on the team posted top-six finishes a season ago.

Lake Forest has finished among the top three in the league at each of the last 16 championship meets. The team's last conference titles came in 2014 and 2015.