The women’s swimming and diving team won their first CCIW title since 1997 in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin on Saturday, Feb. 12. 

This is the seventh such achievement by Augie women’s swimming and diving team. The conference also announced head coach Dan Lloyd as the women’s CCIW swimming and diving coach of the year to acknowledge his 4:0 dual meet record and a CCIW title that season. 

The swimmers are extremely proud of their performance and they acknowledge it as a team effort. 

Junior swimmer Megan Frost expressed how she felt to be a part of the team that brought home the first ever CCIW in 25 years.

“It felt really good especially with the team we had this year,” Frost said. “I felt like everybody really worked hard together to accomplish our goal because we were not supposed to win the conference but everybody stepped up and I think it made it that much more satisfying to win.” 

Similarly, head coach of the year, Dan Lloyd, is also very proud of what the team has achieved. 

“It was just an amazing accomplishment for our team and especially since I have been here for eight years,” Lloyd said. “I had a lot of alums contact me, who swam for me before this, and I let them know that they were also part of this success.”

Lloyd feels that winning a conference title in the same year as the new pool opening made it even more special. 

The team definitely knows how to celebrate the conclusion of a 25 years long wait to win a CCIW title. Senior swimmer Alicia Garcia remembers how she and her team celebrated the title. 

“After the winners were announced, a lot of us were jumping up and down and some of us were even crying. Then we took pictures and jumped into the pool,” Garcia said. 

Going forward, the team is going to focus on maintaining their current level of competition to defend the title and improve even more for next year.

“I think the biggest thing is now having seen what it takes to get there. We are hungry to do that again,” Lloyd said. 

Frost feels like the coach is doing a really good job of trying to recruit for next season, keeping in mind that they will be bidding goodbye to six seniors. 

“I think the hope is to get a good freshman class and everybody keeps the same level of intensity next season as well,” Frost said. 

Similarly, Coach Lloyd also feels the need to fill the leadership positions that are going to be vacant following the graduation of six seniors. 

“We have to replace the leadership that we have which is going to be very, very difficult. We have an amazing group of seniors that have led our team with dignity and grace,” Lloyd said.

Winning the conference was completely a team effort, even though swimming is an individual sport. It is the collective effort of every swimmer stepping up and doing their job. 

“It was a full team effort and there is no doubt about that. What we talked about a lot throughout the season is that if you do your job then we are going to be successful as a team,” Lloyd said. 

Similarly, swimmers Frost and Garcia also have similar feelings about the individual contributions towards winning as a team. 

“Even though you are swimming individually, the whole team is cheering for you,” Frost said.