The UIC swimming and diving team will make its season debut Sunday with a dual meet at Milwaukee.

The team has not competed since the Horizon League championships, which ended a day shy of a full year from Sunday's meet.  With the delay in the start of this season, the Flames have been able to ramp up their training.

"Our biggest obstacle for the last year has been not training – other sports can train individually with little or no equipment, but pools have been closed in many parts of the country," Tim Loeffler said.  "We were thankful to get back in the fall, and our athletes did everything they could to get in the water over winter break, knowing we would have some kind of season.  Moving the Horizon League championships from February to April gave us a full training schedule and the opportunity for some dual meets."

Loeffler and his squad have had to build cohesion as a team against the backdrop of health and safety guidelines, which limit personal interaction and require the team to split up and practice in four separate groups every day.  The team has bonded through all-squad Zoom meetings, and virtual scavenger hunts, friendly competitions, and a modified Red vs. Blue series.

On the men's side, Gabriele Sasia and Jeff Wiedoff return from UIC's school record-setting 200 medley relay team.  Kyle Lewarchick, back for his junior year, set the 400 IM record.  An eight-member freshman class will add depth and in some cases, brings times that are already faster than the best by the returning Flames.

"Our leaders in free are the three Js – Josh [Dellorto], Jacob [Cunningham], and Jeff [Wiedoff].  They've all been training well and performing very well in practice," Loeffler said.  "They'll be a really strong part of our men's team and we're excited about that.  Our captains Cannon [Claiborne] and Kyle [Lewarchick] put a lot of focus on mentoring this fairly big freshman class and helping them navigate the obstacles of college life in general and adapting to college swimming.

"The freshmen are filling the shoes of a class that graduated some big names – Danny Sivak, Luke Hutchinson, and Michael Tegeler are all in our program's and the Horizon League's record books.  The freshmen have seen the success of the program recently and want to build on it.  They're excited to compete this freshman year and make the most of the opportunity.  They've really bought into what this program is about."

The men's diving team will be led by senior Felix LaFortune, who won the 1-meter and 3-meter conference crowns.  Ryan Murphy also returns after showing great improvement in 2020.

Loeffler is looking for his women's team to make big jumps in the upcoming season.  "Our sophomore class is coming back strong, with Lilly Culp and Poleena Kovalaske leading the way.  They want to build on their early success as freshmen and make bigger impacts on the team."  Culp broke the school record in the 100 fly, and won the 200 fly at conference, as a freshman.

"The women have two amazing captains, Nikki Eyssen and Beth Kelzer, who both have not only proven success at the championship meet, but have been great in helping the rest of the team.  They understand that our women made a great jump at conference, and didn't graduate a lot of points, so we can build on that," Loeffler continued.

"Our women's freshman class is smaller but it fills areas that were needed.  This is a team that I don't see a weakness in the events now, and that's what were excited about.  We also have a junior, Lizzie Zeller, who transferred from Rutgers after two years in the Big 10.  It's great to have her bring that experience and jump start to where we want to be."

On the diving side, UIC returns the most decorated diver in program history.  Senior Cydney Liebenberg is the reigning conference 3-meter diving champion and the Diver of the Meet.  She holds the program records on both boards, and was the 1- and 3-meter conference champion her freshman and sophomore years.  The deep squad also includes upperclassmen Kallie Zuidema and Katie Petro, and sophomores Abby Hellinga and Maya Molldrem.

Sunday's meet kicks off an abbreviated season that will see three Horizon League dual meets in consecutive weeks, followed by a break before another meet with Milwaukee.  The Horizon League championships are scheduled for April 5-10 in Indianapolis.

"We're just excited to be able to race.  It's been a year since the conference championships, which is the last time many of them have raced.  We plan on building through each meet with a focus on the conference championship," Loeffler concluded.

Milwaukee will provide a live stream via the link in the blue box above.