The Lyons Township High School girls swimming and diving team has five returning senior all-staters with Maeve Collins, Lindsay Forebaugh, Dylan Jorgensen, Anna Pansing and Kylie Thompson.
The Lions also have talented freshmen who, like this year’s senior group, should make an immediate impact.
“(Forebaugh, Thompson and I) were at state freshman year. Now seeing that we have freshmen that have the potential to go to state, too, it’s kind of a full-circle moment,” Jorgensen said.
“It’s been a really long time since LT trophied (top three at state) so if we get to that point, that would be awesome.”
With standouts from all four classes, the Lions bring high aspirations under new swim coach Brendan Weibel, who succeeds retired longtime coach Scott Walker. Weibel is a 2014 LTHS graduate who swam for Walker when he also coached the boys team and previously coached at Lane Tech.
Last year, the Lions took fifth at state (146 points) and established six current school records along the way.
So far this season, the Lions won their annual LT Relays Saturday and Hinsdale Central’s KP Invitational Aug. 30 (294 points) by 34 points over Rosary.
Lyons Township’s Dylan Jorgensen swims the breaststroke during 200 yard Medley Relay at the Hinsdale Central Kendall Pickering Invitational Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025 in Hinsdale. (Steve Johnston) 
Lyons Township’s Lindsay Forebaugh swims the 100 yard butterfly during the Hinsdale Central Kendall Pickering Invitational Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025 in Hinsdale. (Steve Johnston) 
Lyons Township’s Kylie Thompson swims the 200 yard Freestyle during the Hinsdale Central Kendall Pickering Invitational Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025 in Hinsdale. (Steve Johnston) 
Lyons Township’s Anna Pansing heads off the blocks to stat the 200 yard Freestyle during the Hinsdale Central Kendall Pickering Invitational Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025 in Hinsdale. (Steve Johnston)
The Lions have only achieved a state trophy once by taking third in 1995 under Walker.
“They’re swimming well, training well,” Weibel said. “I try not to think about (state finishes). If they all go faster than they’ve ever gone before, when it comes to the state meet, I think good things will happen. I just kind of focus on what we have control over. We’re very deep so if everybody’s going really fast for themselves, good things will happen.”
Collins (University of California-Santa Barbara) and Forebaugh (Dartmouth) already are committed to swimming collegiately. Collins owns the school record in the 100-yard butterfly (55.04).
There’s further experience from juniors Claire Collins and Claire Crimmins and sophomores Olivia Chavez and Abby Thompson besides freshmen Anna Fagans, Molly Forebaugh, Tatum Fridrych and Sydney Kail.
In diving, junior Brynn Krantz is a returning state qualifier and sophomore Abby Rehor also has state potential. Diving coach Julie McDermott and Walker were last year’s sectional coaches of the year.
“Definitely depth is our strength,” said Weibel, who plans on using multiple lineups throughout the season.
“Something that’s encouraging is the depth that we have and just that multiple people can be placed in multiple events,” added Pansing. “It’s exciting to swim different things and then figure out the best lineup for sectionals, state.”
At 2024 state, the 200 medley relay with Thompson (backstroke) and Maeve Collins (butterfly) was third (1:43.04) and the 200 free relay with Pansing (school-record 1:33.21) and 400 relay with Collins and Pansing (3:25.09) were fourth (3:25.09).
Individually, Maeve Collins was fifth in the 100 fly (55.04). Earning honorable mention all-state were Forebaugh in the 100 fly (tied for 10th, 56.66) and Jorgensen in the 200 individual medley (13th, 2:07.72). In her second state diving appearance, Kranz was 17th (311.55 points for 8 dives), 3.40 points from a berth in finals.
The Lions’ all-state graduates were college swimmers Ella Jean Kelly (Iowa), Audra Cavaliere (Illinois) and Lauren Jablonski (Bowling Green).
“I’m hoping that we kind of maybe not replace (last year’s seniors) but at least fill in those gaps and make it so we’re able to perform similar, better than we did last year,” Jorgensen said.
This season, two training changes have been weight lifting for the first time and the large team divided into three workout groups with different schedules and specialized training rather than practicing all together.
“Our goal is top three in the state. I think that would be really cool because we haven’t done that for a while,” Pansing said. “We’re just all trying to feed off of each other’s energy and motivate each other. (The season) can get long and hard so (we need to) just try to keep our eye on that and do our best at all times.”
Correction, Sept. 24, 2025, 1 p.m.: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of a student. Her name is Olivia Chavez. The Landmark apologizes for the error.