Ladies Rank Second, Males Place Third in Horizon League Preseason Ballot

INDIANAPOLIS – The Horizon League launched the lads’s and girls’s swimming & diving preseason ballot Wednesday afternoon, as each Milwaukee packages rank inside the top-3 to kick off the 2026-27 season. 

The Panthers’ ladies’s unit positioned second general with 37 votes, trailing Oakland, who completed first in each polls. IU Indy, Cleveland State and Youngstown State rounded out the top-5. 

Milwaukee returns a robust core from final 12 months’s runner-up end on the Horizon League Championships, paced by the likes of Maddi Hayashi and Christiana Brooks. 

Hayashi earned a person convention championship in each the 100m butterfly and 200m butterfly to assist information the Panthers to silver final February. Brooks was extra of the identical, handing over a first-place effort within the 100m freestyle. Both athletes had been key contributors to a number of relays as properly. Overall, Milwaukee earned victories in eight occasions over the course of the week.

On the lads’s aspect, Milwaukee enters the season in third behind Oakland and IU Indy. Cleveland State and Green Bay adopted intently behind in fourth and fifth, respectively. 

Sam Lorenz returns to the Panthers as one of many prime swimmers within the Horizon League, rising as considered one of 4 athletes from the convention to qualify for the NCAA Championships final season. 

The Mequon, Wis. native broke a pair of convention data within the course of, notching a time of 45.81 seconds within the 100m backstroke and 1:41.60 within the 200m backstroke again in February. 

Milwaukee will start its 2026-27 marketing campaign on the Klotsche Natatorium Saturday, Oct. 3, as this system hosts its annual Alumni & Intrasquad Meet.