NORMAL, Ill. – Eleven seniors and divers, and the longest-tenured head coach in program history, will be competing in the final home meet of their careers at Horton Pool Saturday as the Redbirds host Nebraska-Omaha at 12 p.m.
Saturday's meet will be the final home contest for head coach Steve Paska, who has served as the team's head coach since 1985. Paska announced his retirement, effective July 31, 2015, last month.
Saturday's home meet will also be the last for 11 members of the team: Cecilia Holmes, Kristin Horney, Keely Hunt, Valerie Jones, Emily Langlotz, Alexis Nash, Katherine Nelson, Samantha Schuckles, Allison Soper, Marissa Yontz and Wenting Zhang. The seniors will be recognized before the meet at 11:45 a.m.
"These seniors are fantastic student-athletes," Paska said. "I have been blessed to watch these girls mature into one of the most-decorated senior classes in terms of their achievements in the pool, on the record board and in the classroom.
"We're expecting a large crowd to witness the seniors perform in their last home meet, and special is an understatement. For me to share the spotlight with this senior class is truly a memory that I will remember for a long period of time."
Head diving coach Phil Hoffmann has been coaching alongside Paska for 13 years.
"The senior meet is always bittersweet no matter how you frame it," Hoffmann said. "In my opinion, this is one of, if not the best, senior classes we've ever had go through Illinois State. On the diving side, (Zhang) is the best we've ever had. It will be hard seeing that this is her last meet at Horton Pool.
"And knowing that this is the last time I will be coaching with Steve on the Horton Pool deck is a little weird, but the plan is to take it day by day, and we'll go from there."
After Saturday's meet, the Redbirds will travel to the Butler Invitational, where they will compete at 11 a.m. CST Sunday. The women's teams competing are Southern Illinois, Butler, IUPUI, St. Louis and Xavier.
"This is our fourth-consecutive year that we've been competing at this meet," Paska said. "This is the last weekend that I will be able to witness these girls swim back-to-back meets before the conference meet in February. This weekend will provide myself and assistant coach Randi Windemuller an opportunity to plot strategy for the conference meet as we watch these girls compete in three-to-seven events over a two-day period."
Saturday's meet will be streamed live online at GoRedbirds.com/watch. Admission to all Illinois State home meets is free.
