Divers Emily Hirt and Kaitlin Schneider have signed National Letters of Intention to continue their academic and athletic careers at Illinois State as members of the Redbird swimming and diving team.
Hirt, a native of Mundelein, Ill., holds the Mundelein High School record on the one-meter board for six dives with 235 points and eleven dives with a score of 444.4. Voted co-MVP as a sophomore, junior and senior, Hirt placed 14th in the state meet as a junior and 9th her senior year.
Schneider comes to Illinois State from Davenport, Iowa. At North High School, Schneider holds both the six and 11 dive records and placed 14th at the state competition as a sophomore and 11th as a junior. As a senior, she ended the regular diving season undefeated and was the Mississippi Athletic Conference champion. Also her senior year, Schneider finished fifth at the state meet en route to being named second team all-state and academic all-state.
Diving coach Laura Segerlin feels the two newest Redbirds will compliment her all-freshman squad of this season.
They will mesh in with the rest of the group very well, Segerlin said. They both have a lot of enthusiasm and are hard workers. That will help them build on the Illinois State diving tradition in the Missouri Valley Conference.
