Greetings Illini Nation! The Illini Swimming & Diving blog, The Chlorine Chronicles, is back and better than ever!

The Illini enter the New Year with a successful 2014 behind them. The highlight of 2014 was the team's stellar performance at the Missouri Invitational. The Illini finished fourth overall and achieved 68 lifetime best times in the process. Five school records were also broken. Al Meng broke the 100 fly and 100 back school records, Gabbie blew past the 200 fly and 500 free school records, and Rocky (Raquel Corniuk) made her mark with a new platform diving record.

2015 began with the team's annual training trip. The divers spent one week training in the Puerto Rican sun, while the swimmers hit up Barbados for some quality pool time. Amidst all of the hard training, both the swimmers and the divers were able to find time to enjoy the sun. The divers spent their free time hiking in the rainforest, snorkeling and kayaking. The swimmers participated in an open water swim where they saw shipwrecks and turtles. Half the team, along with our awesome trainer Meagan, attempted surfing while Kate and Sascha went scuba diving.

The swimmers also participated in the first Barbados Training Trip Mini-Golf Tournament. Addy putted a hole-in-one on the Steak Hole, earning herself a steak dinner, but ironically she is a vegetarian so she had to decline the prize. Al Meng walked away victorious, but the bigger news might be that Coach Alec, rumored to be an excellent mini-golf competitor, ended up in fourth place with Al Meng, Gabby and Amelia beating him. This shocking upset resulted in Ben & Jerry's pints for the entire team, courtesy of Coach Sue.

Faithful Chlorine Chronicle followers will remember that Lori's stuffed animal cat, Bianca, and Bella's stuffed animal dolphin, Gilby, were joined in holy matrimony on last year's training trip in Puerto Rico. A year later, after a short rough patch, the two stuffed lovebirds are still going strong. As Bella puts it, "Gilby saw Bianca in a bikini in the Barbadian sun and it pretty much sealed the deal."

In more stuffed animal news, the Chlorine Chronicles would like to introduce Kate's four stuffed squirrels: Nuts, Nuttier, Mini Nuts and Chubbie Nuts. The squirrels made the journey to Barbados but sadly no romance or gossip has been reported.

The Illini return to competition in the pool this weekend in a home dual against Nebraska. The team is holding a supplies drive for the Peoria Area Children's Hospital. The hospital is in need of supplies such as googly eyes, pipe cleaners, Play-Doh, nail polish, body wash, soap, and crafts for teenagers, so all donations are welcome! The weekend also marks the team's annual Splash Bash event, so come out to the ARC to support a good cause and cheer on your Fighting Illini!

Go Illini!
Stephanie