The 2023-24 season was the 16th for Vadim Tashlitsky '00 as head coach of the Foresters and his 22nd year in coaching.
Tashlitsky led the 2023-24 Forester men and women to third-place finishes at the Midwest Conference Championship Meet. Both squads have now finished among the top three in the conference 15 times in Tashlitsky's time at the College. The women captured the 2012 and 2020 league titles and the men claimed back-to-back championships in 2014 and 2015.
Forester swimmers and divers won seven individual events and a relay at the 2024 MWC Championships. Audrey Kilmer captured three individual event titles and earned MWC Women's Swimmer of the Year honors while Izabella Harju was named MWC Women's Newcomer of the Year. Tashlitsky's athletes have now finished first at the conference meet 192 times and claimed 16 MWC Swimmer/Diver of the Year awards while he has been named MWC Women's Coach of the Year six times (2010-13, 2020, 2022) and Men's Coach of the Year twice (2010, 2015). Tashlitsky also earned Coach of Excellence distinction from the American Swimming Coaches Association in 2011 and 2013.
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 15 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 three new team records in 2023-24, Tashlitsky's athletes have broken school records 116 times and set new league marks 51 times during his time as head coach. His teams have also combined to post a dual meet record of 118-81-1 in his tenure.
Lake Forest has also been extremely successful in the classroom under Tashlitsky. Caprice Kalvelage earned the MWC Elite 20 Award for possessing the highest cumulative grade point average of any participant in the 2023 and 2024 MWC Championships and Graeme Witte was the men's recipient of the award in 2020 and 2022. Eight men and 15 women earned Academic All-MWC honors in 2023-24, giving the program 223 since Tashlitsky became the head coach. In addition, the Lake Forest women extended their streak of being named a CSCAA Scholar All-America Team to 20 semesters while the men have earned the honor 15 times during that span.
Tashlitsky came to Lake Forest from California, where he was the senior coach at Irvine Novaquatics, a nationally-recognized United States Gold Medal Swim Club. He was also the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Soka University of America.
Prior to moving to Irvine in 2006, Tashlitsky worked for four years with the Barrington Swim Club in Barrington, Illinois, and served as the club's Head Senior Coach for the final two years. He also assisted with the Barrington High School Swim Team and the Barrington Swim Club’s age group program.
Among the athletes he has developed are NCAA and High School All Americans, Senior National, United States Open, Junior National, and Speedo Sectional Champion Series qualifiers. Through his position at Irvine Novaquatics he also worked directly with several Senior National, Olympic Trial, and World Championship qualifiers.
Tashlitsky, who graduated from the College in 2000, was a three-year letter winner and All-Midwest Conference swimmer. He helped the Foresters claim three consecutive conference championships in 1997, 1998, and 1999.
