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Jul. 18—Some thrived. Others didn't. But sifting through the highs and lows from the past year, our Scott Richey rates how the 19 athletic programs at the University of Illinois fared during the 2025-26 school year:
Men's basketball — A+
Why an A+: A national championship might remain elusive, but the Illini put together one of the best seasons in program history featuring the greatest single season from a freshman. Illinois and national power can now be used in the same sentence.
High point: Tough to beat cutting down the nets in Houston after beating Iowa 71-59 to reach the program's first Final Four in 21 years. THe Hawkeyes didn't have an answer for both Keaton Wagler (25 points) and Andrej Stojakovic (17).
Low point: Michigan might have run away with the Big Ten title and parlayed that into a national championship, but Illinois' 84-70 home loss was a serious disappointment. The most hyped game of the regular season turned into a laugher.
Big Ten finish: Fourth
Last year's grade: A-
Women's track and field — A
Why an A: Two more top 10 national finishes, making four straight, is further evidence of the tremendous growth in the program since director of track and field Petros Kyprianou took over the program in 2022.
High point: Only the 2011 Illinois volleyball team has a better national finish (runner-up) than the Illini track and field team's third at the NCAA indoor championships. A bronze secured by Sophia Beckmon's long jump title and two other All-Americans.
Low point: Coming in second twice to Oregon at the Big Ten indoor and outdoor championships when a title (or two) was a real possibility was a disappointment. Particularly after leading following the first day of competition both times.
Big Ten finish: Second (indoors)/Second (outdoors)
Last year's grade: A
Men's tennis — A
Why an A: Brad Dancer's 21st season as Illinois coach included a major bounceback for the program with nine more wins and a five-spot jump in the Big Ten standings. Ohio State remains the Illini's Kryptonite, but progress was made.
High point: Instead of being a case of peaking too soon, Illinois' back-to-back wins against No. 8 Baylor and No. 6 TCU on the final weekend of February was simply part of an 11-match winning streak. Beating the Horned Frogs was the best win of the year.
Low point: Ohio State took down Illinois three times. The first came in the regular season, then once more in the Big Ten tournament semifinals and one final time in the NCAA championships. Getting swept 4-0 in the Sweet 16 was a tough way to end the season.
Big Ten finish: Third
Last year's grade: B-
Football — A
Why an A: Nine more wins and another bowl game victory against the SEC. Not only did the Illini stay competitive in the top half of the Power Four, but they were able to string two impressive seasons together. That's been a rarity in Champaign.
High point: Take your pick of David Olano game-winning field goals. The first delivered a 34-32 upset of No. 21 USC at Gies Memorial Stadium. The second "right down Broadway" gave Illinois a 30-28 Music City Bowl victory against Tennessee in Nashville, Tenn.
Low point: Losing to Indiana and Ohio State? Reasonable (even if the eventual College Football Playoff champion Hoosiers crushed Illinois by 53 points). Losing 27-10 to struggling Wisconsin and not looking competitive in the process? That one stung.
Big Ten finish: Seventh
Last year's grade: A
Women's basketball — A
Why an A: The bar has risen considerably in Shauna Green's first four seasons at Illinois, and the 2025-26 campaign kept up with those expectations. Another 22-win season. Another NCAA tournament appearance. Might be time to raise the bar again.
High point: Beating then No. 7 Maryland 73-70 was quite the way to bring in the new year. That Jan. 1 victory at State Farm Center thanks to a 22-point game by Berry Wallace was one of two ranked wins for the Illini last season.
Low point: Getting smoked by UCLA? Not ideal, but the Bruins did go on to win a national title. Back-to-back losses to No. 9 Iowa and No. 22 Minnesota to end the regular season marked a pair of missed opportunities in winnable games that slipped away late.
Big Ten finish: 10th
Last year's grade: A
Soccer — A
Why an A: Illinois' struggles in 2024 were reversed in Katie Hultin's first season leading the program. The Illini got off to a 7-0-1 and then 9-1-1 start (program records), and Hultin became the first UI soccer coach to make the NCAA tournament in her first season.
High point: Goals from Sydney Stephens, Lia Howard (two) and Emma Yee helped Illinois snap a 10-match losing streak to Penn State dating back to 2012 and provided Hultin her first ranked win of her Illini coaching career against the No. 18 Nittany Lions.
Low point: Illinois closed out the regular season 0-2-1 in its final three Big Ten matches. A trio that included a 5-1 loss at No. 16 Michigan State. It was the most goals the Illini allowed all season by two, with Ohio State posting a 3-0 victory in Champaign.
Big Ten finish: Ninth
Last year's grade: D
Men's golf — B
Why a B: Expectations are just that high for Mike Small's program. Most golf programs would be content with multiple regular season tournament victories, a runner-up conference championship finish and an NCAA regional appearance. Not the Illini.
High point: Ryan Voois carded a 15-under to claim the individual title, and Illinois crushed the field for a team win at the Hal Williams Collegiate in mid-February in Mobile, Ala. The Illini finished 31-under as a team, winning by 15 strokes.
Low point: Illinois failing to make it out of the NCAA regional in Athens, Ga., and to the NCAA championship was a serious surprise. That just doesn't happen. The Illini had previously advanced 18 times in their 20 previous regional appearances.
Big Ten finish: Second
Last year's grade: B+
Women's golf — B
Why a B: Two tournament wins and a solid postseason performance helped salvage a solid season for Renee Slone's team. A seventh-place finish at the NCAA regional in Stanford, Calif., was the best regional finish since 2019.
High point: Illinois' pair of wins came in events hosted by Big Ten rivals Wisconsin and Purdue. The Badger Invitational victory was more impressive, with Alexis Myers finishing first and the Illini shooting 16-under as a team to win by 16.
Low point: A trip to Wilmington, N.C., for the Landfall Tradition in late October was a bust. The Illini shot 51-over as a team to finish 18th (out of 18), with Anna Ritter's tie for 35th at 6-over the best Illinois had to offer.
Big Ten finish: Fifth (tie)
Last year's grade: B
Men's gymnastics — B-
Why a B-: It was a challenging regular season for Illinois, with a 2-7-1 overall record and zero wins in four Big Ten dual meets. The posteason provided some highlights, though, with three Illini earning All-Big Ten honors and five claiming All-American status.
High point: Home apparatus advantage at State Farm Center only yielded a fifth-place team finish at the NCAA championships, but Brandon Dang's win on the pommel horse made him the first Illinois national champion since 2024.
Low point: None of Illinois' head-to-head Big Ten matchups were all that close during the regular season. Michigan's nearly 12-point victory at Huff Hall was the Illini's least competitive despite three individual event titles.
Big Ten finish: Third
Last year's grade: B-
Men's track and field — B-
Why a B: Progress has been slower for Kyprianou on the men's side. Most has come from individual athletes rather than the team, but the rebuild is still making up ground from where Kyprianou inherited it.
High point: A pair of event champions helped the Illinois men claim a seventh-place finish at the Big Ten indoor championships. Kennedy Ocansey won the high jump with a mark of 7 feet, 1 3/4 inches, and Viktor Morozov took home the triple jump title at 53-9.
Low point: The Illini had higher expectations than their eventual 35th-place finish at the NCAA outdoor championships. While Luuk Pelkmans finished third in the decathlon, a disqualification in the 400-meter dash by Jip de Greef for crossing a lane cost Illinois.
Big Ten finish: Seventh (indoors)/10th (outdoors)
Last year's grade: C
Wrestling — C+
Why a C+: Eight ranked wins during the regular season and a pair of All-Americans in Kannon Webster and Lucas Byrd marked a solid season for Illinois. It just didn't come with the same type of end-of-the-year pop Byrd's 2025 national title provided.
High point: Illinois 3-2 at the National Duals Invitational in Tulsa, Okla., in mid-November, notching ranked wins against No. 25 Little Rock, No. 7 Lehigh and No. 17 Missouri. Another win against the Tigers, then ranked No. 11, eight days later continued the hot streak.
Low point: Now former coach Mike Poeta being placed on administrative leave and ultimately replaced by longtime assistant coach Jeremy Hunter certainly wasn't a bright spot for the program. Results didn't slip much, but midseason turmoil like that was a tough look.
Big Ten finish: Sixth
Last year's grade: B-
Baseball — C
Why a C: It's fairly simple. The Illini finished one game above .500 overall and two games below .500 in Big Ten play. The latter was good enough to just make the Big Ten tournament, but it was a quick 0-2 exit for the Illini in Omaha, Neb.
High point: Ranked wins were few and far between for Illinois this spring. The best actual came while it was still winter in a true road game with a 14-5 victory against then No. 6 Coastal Carolina on Feb. 22 with AJ Putty and Will Johannes going yard.
Low point: Illinois avoided UCLA during the Big Ten season, but the conference's still new West coast programs still gave the Illini trouble. USC pulled off a sweep in Los Angeles in early March, and Oregon took two of three in Champaign, outscoring Illinois 40-27.
Big Ten finish: Ninth
Last year's grade: C
Women's tennis — C
Why a C: Evan Clark's last season as Illinois coach before his surprise retirement ended in a 13-13 overall record and 7-6 mark in Big Ten action. Four straight wins in April provided some momentum before a season-ending loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament.
High point: The Illini's best win of the season, at least in terms of their opponents' ranking, came in the regular season finale against No. 45 Maryland. That 4-1 victory in College Park, Md., got Illinois above .500 in league play.
Low point: A five-match losing streak in the middle of the Big Ten schedule was the toughest stretch for Illinois this spring. Having to play four top 20 teams didn't help, with Washington, Michigan and UCLA all posting 4-0 sweeps and USC a 4-1 win.
Big Ten finish: Ninth
Last year's grade: B-
Volleyball — D
Why a D: Not counting the shortened spring 2021 season (delayed from the fall because of COVID), last year's 13-16 record was the worst for Illinois since the 2002 team also went 13-16 midway through Don Hardin's tenure as coach.
High point: Getting a win at Purdue is basically tradition at this point. Last September's 4-1 victory, fueled by 17 kills from Taylor de Boer, was extra special, however, since it doubled as Illinois' first against a top 10 opponent since 2021.
Low point: Illinois moved to 13-11 overall and 8-7 in the Big Ten after beating Washington on Nov. 14. The door was still open for an at-large NCAA tournament berth. It slammed shut with the Illini losing their final five matches of the season.
Big Ten finish: 10th (tie)
Last year's grade: C+
Men's cross-country — D-
Why a D-: A limited schedule with just three events before the postseason didn't give Illinois much chance. The Illini didn't run at all in the month of September. When they did get on the course, not much in the way of success followed.
High point: Joshua Daggett's fifth-place finish in 17 minutes, 41.90 seconds across the 6-kilometer course at the University of Illinois Golf Course in Savoy was the best in the Illini's runner-up team finish at their own Fighting Illini Invitational.
Low point: Illinois' final tune-up before the Big Ten championships did not go well. The Illini finished 24th out of 31 teams at Pre-Nationals in Columbia, Mo., with Daggett again the leader at 24:19.9 for the 8-kilometer race.
Big Ten finish: 13th
Last year's grade: C
Women's cross-country — D-
Why a D-: The Illinois women's schedule was the same as the men's — brief. As in also taking the entire month of September off brief. The Illini women were at touch better in the postseason, though, finishing 15th at the NCAA Midwest Regionals.
High point: A second-place finish from freshman Nora Wollen, who covered the 4-kilometer course at the Orange and Blue in 13 minutes, 18.90 seconds, helped Illinois finish third at the Fighting Illini Invitational to start the season.
Low point: Pre-Nationals was also a stumbling block for the Illinois women, with a 26th-place finish among the 38 teams running at Gans Creek Cross Country Course. Wollen was the top finisher, running 20:33.7 to finish 50th on the 6-kilometer track.
Big Ten finish: 13th
Last year's grade: C-
Women's gymnastics — D-
Why a D-: Chloe Cho followed up her impressive freshman season with more of the same this year. Team success was harder to come by, however, with Illinois posting a 5-14 overall record and a 1-8 mark in the Big Ten.
High point: The Illini picked up their lone Big Ten victory of the season during their longest road trip, taking down Washington by 0.075 points at Alaska Airlines Arena. Cho (vault) and Lyden Saltness (uneven bars) claimed a pair of individual event titles.
Low point: Finishing 11th out of 12 teams at the Big Ten championships was reflective of Illinois' challenging season. The Illini scored 195.125 points, with Summer Clancy's tie for fifth in vault the highest individual event finish for the team.
Big Ten finish: 11th
Last year's grade: C-
Swimming and diving — D-
Why a D-: Simply put, Illinois remains mostly uncompetitive in the Big Ten. The Illini went 0-4 against conference opponents during the regular season and then finished last at the Big Ten championships for the fourth time in the last eight years.
High point: The most lopsided win of Illinois' seven this past season came in a 262-85 victory against Vanderbilt in Terre Haute, Ind. The Illini won seven events, with Sara Jass leading the way with wins in the 200 breaststroke and 400 individual medley.
Low point: Illinois' three-day stay in Minneapolis for the Big Ten championships was brutal. The Illini finished 88 1/2 points behind 13th-place Iowa and a whopping 1,047 1/2 points behind league champs Michigan.
Big Ten finish: 14th
Last year's grade: D-
Softball — F
Why an F: The 2026 season was, without question, the worst in program history. Illinois has only won fewer than 15 games twice. The first came in 2000 when the inaugural team went 13-17. The other came in 2020 with an 11-11 season ended by a pandemic.
High point: A 15-39 campaign didn't have many options. The most commanding win in a 3-20 Big Ten slate, though, was a 14-6 victory in five innings against Minnesota on March 28 that featured an Eileen Donohue home run.
Low point: UCLA's path to the Women's College World Series included three games at Eichelberger Field. The Bruins swept the series with three run-shortened victories of 17-0, 10-1 and 18-0.
Big Ten finish: 16th
Last year's grade: D-
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Men's basketball — A+
Why an A+: A national championship might remain elusive, but the Illini put together one of the best seasons in program history featuring the greatest single season from a freshman. Illinois and national power can now be used in the same sentence.
High point: Tough to beat cutting down the nets in Houston after beating Iowa 71-59 to reach the program's first Final Four in 21 years. THe Hawkeyes didn't have an answer for both Keaton Wagler (25 points) and Andrej Stojakovic (17).
Low point: Michigan might have run away with the Big Ten title and parlayed that into a national championship, but Illinois' 84-70 home loss was a serious disappointment. The most hyped game of the regular season turned into a laugher.
Big Ten finish: Fourth
Last year's grade: A-
Women's track and field — A
Why an A: Two more top 10 national finishes, making four straight, is further evidence of the tremendous growth in the program since director of track and field Petros Kyprianou took over the program in 2022.
High point: Only the 2011 Illinois volleyball team has a better national finish (runner-up) than the Illini track and field team's third at the NCAA indoor championships. A bronze secured by Sophia Beckmon's long jump title and two other All-Americans.
Low point: Coming in second twice to Oregon at the Big Ten indoor and outdoor championships when a title (or two) was a real possibility was a disappointment. Particularly after leading following the first day of competition both times.
Big Ten finish: Second (indoors)/Second (outdoors)
Last year's grade: A
Men's tennis — A
Why an A: Brad Dancer's 21st season as Illinois coach included a major bounceback for the program with nine more wins and a five-spot jump in the Big Ten standings. Ohio State remains the Illini's Kryptonite, but progress was made.
High point: Instead of being a case of peaking too soon, Illinois' back-to-back wins against No. 8 Baylor and No. 6 TCU on the final weekend of February was simply part of an 11-match winning streak. Beating the Horned Frogs was the best win of the year.
Low point: Ohio State took down Illinois three times. The first came in the regular season, then once more in the Big Ten tournament semifinals and one final time in the NCAA championships. Getting swept 4-0 in the Sweet 16 was a tough way to end the season.
Big Ten finish: Third
Last year's grade: B-
Football — A
Why an A: Nine more wins and another bowl game victory against the SEC. Not only did the Illini stay competitive in the top half of the Power Four, but they were able to string two impressive seasons together. That's been a rarity in Champaign.
High point: Take your pick of David Olano game-winning field goals. The first delivered a 34-32 upset of No. 21 USC at Gies Memorial Stadium. The second "right down Broadway" gave Illinois a 30-28 Music City Bowl victory against Tennessee in Nashville, Tenn.
Low point: Losing to Indiana and Ohio State? Reasonable (even if the eventual College Football Playoff champion Hoosiers crushed Illinois by 53 points). Losing 27-10 to struggling Wisconsin and not looking competitive in the process? That one stung.
Big Ten finish: Seventh
Last year's grade: A
Women's basketball — A
Why an A: The bar has risen considerably in Shauna Green's first four seasons at Illinois, and the 2025-26 campaign kept up with those expectations. Another 22-win season. Another NCAA tournament appearance. Might be time to raise the bar again.
High point: Beating then No. 7 Maryland 73-70 was quite the way to bring in the new year. That Jan. 1 victory at State Farm Center thanks to a 22-point game by Berry Wallace was one of two ranked wins for the Illini last season.
Low point: Getting smoked by UCLA? Not ideal, but the Bruins did go on to win a national title. Back-to-back losses to No. 9 Iowa and No. 22 Minnesota to end the regular season marked a pair of missed opportunities in winnable games that slipped away late.
Big Ten finish: 10th
Last year's grade: A
Soccer — A
Why an A: Illinois' struggles in 2024 were reversed in Katie Hultin's first season leading the program. The Illini got off to a 7-0-1 and then 9-1-1 start (program records), and Hultin became the first UI soccer coach to make the NCAA tournament in her first season.
High point: Goals from Sydney Stephens, Lia Howard (two) and Emma Yee helped Illinois snap a 10-match losing streak to Penn State dating back to 2012 and provided Hultin her first ranked win of her Illini coaching career against the No. 18 Nittany Lions.
Low point: Illinois closed out the regular season 0-2-1 in its final three Big Ten matches. A trio that included a 5-1 loss at No. 16 Michigan State. It was the most goals the Illini allowed all season by two, with Ohio State posting a 3-0 victory in Champaign.
Big Ten finish: Ninth
Last year's grade: D
Men's golf — B
Why a B: Expectations are just that high for Mike Small's program. Most golf programs would be content with multiple regular season tournament victories, a runner-up conference championship finish and an NCAA regional appearance. Not the Illini.
High point: Ryan Voois carded a 15-under to claim the individual title, and Illinois crushed the field for a team win at the Hal Williams Collegiate in mid-February in Mobile, Ala. The Illini finished 31-under as a team, winning by 15 strokes.
Low point: Illinois failing to make it out of the NCAA regional in Athens, Ga., and to the NCAA championship was a serious surprise. That just doesn't happen. The Illini had previously advanced 18 times in their 20 previous regional appearances.
Big Ten finish: Second
Last year's grade: B+
Women's golf — B
Why a B: Two tournament wins and a solid postseason performance helped salvage a solid season for Renee Slone's team. A seventh-place finish at the NCAA regional in Stanford, Calif., was the best regional finish since 2019.
High point: Illinois' pair of wins came in events hosted by Big Ten rivals Wisconsin and Purdue. The Badger Invitational victory was more impressive, with Alexis Myers finishing first and the Illini shooting 16-under as a team to win by 16.
Low point: A trip to Wilmington, N.C., for the Landfall Tradition in late October was a bust. The Illini shot 51-over as a team to finish 18th (out of 18), with Anna Ritter's tie for 35th at 6-over the best Illinois had to offer.
Big Ten finish: Fifth (tie)
Last year's grade: B
Men's gymnastics — B-
Why a B-: It was a challenging regular season for Illinois, with a 2-7-1 overall record and zero wins in four Big Ten dual meets. The posteason provided some highlights, though, with three Illini earning All-Big Ten honors and five claiming All-American status.
High point: Home apparatus advantage at State Farm Center only yielded a fifth-place team finish at the NCAA championships, but Brandon Dang's win on the pommel horse made him the first Illinois national champion since 2024.
Low point: None of Illinois' head-to-head Big Ten matchups were all that close during the regular season. Michigan's nearly 12-point victory at Huff Hall was the Illini's least competitive despite three individual event titles.
Big Ten finish: Third
Last year's grade: B-
Men's track and field — B-
Why a B: Progress has been slower for Kyprianou on the men's side. Most has come from individual athletes rather than the team, but the rebuild is still making up ground from where Kyprianou inherited it.
High point: A pair of event champions helped the Illinois men claim a seventh-place finish at the Big Ten indoor championships. Kennedy Ocansey won the high jump with a mark of 7 feet, 1 3/4 inches, and Viktor Morozov took home the triple jump title at 53-9.
Low point: The Illini had higher expectations than their eventual 35th-place finish at the NCAA outdoor championships. While Luuk Pelkmans finished third in the decathlon, a disqualification in the 400-meter dash by Jip de Greef for crossing a lane cost Illinois.
Big Ten finish: Seventh (indoors)/10th (outdoors)
Last year's grade: C
Wrestling — C+
Why a C+: Eight ranked wins during the regular season and a pair of All-Americans in Kannon Webster and Lucas Byrd marked a solid season for Illinois. It just didn't come with the same type of end-of-the-year pop Byrd's 2025 national title provided.
High point: Illinois 3-2 at the National Duals Invitational in Tulsa, Okla., in mid-November, notching ranked wins against No. 25 Little Rock, No. 7 Lehigh and No. 17 Missouri. Another win against the Tigers, then ranked No. 11, eight days later continued the hot streak.
Low point: Now former coach Mike Poeta being placed on administrative leave and ultimately replaced by longtime assistant coach Jeremy Hunter certainly wasn't a bright spot for the program. Results didn't slip much, but midseason turmoil like that was a tough look.
Big Ten finish: Sixth
Last year's grade: B-
Baseball — C
Why a C: It's fairly simple. The Illini finished one game above .500 overall and two games below .500 in Big Ten play. The latter was good enough to just make the Big Ten tournament, but it was a quick 0-2 exit for the Illini in Omaha, Neb.
High point: Ranked wins were few and far between for Illinois this spring. The best actual came while it was still winter in a true road game with a 14-5 victory against then No. 6 Coastal Carolina on Feb. 22 with AJ Putty and Will Johannes going yard.
Low point: Illinois avoided UCLA during the Big Ten season, but the conference's still new West coast programs still gave the Illini trouble. USC pulled off a sweep in Los Angeles in early March, and Oregon took two of three in Champaign, outscoring Illinois 40-27.
Big Ten finish: Ninth
Last year's grade: C
Women's tennis — C
Why a C: Evan Clark's last season as Illinois coach before his surprise retirement ended in a 13-13 overall record and 7-6 mark in Big Ten action. Four straight wins in April provided some momentum before a season-ending loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament.
High point: The Illini's best win of the season, at least in terms of their opponents' ranking, came in the regular season finale against No. 45 Maryland. That 4-1 victory in College Park, Md., got Illinois above .500 in league play.
Low point: A five-match losing streak in the middle of the Big Ten schedule was the toughest stretch for Illinois this spring. Having to play four top 20 teams didn't help, with Washington, Michigan and UCLA all posting 4-0 sweeps and USC a 4-1 win.
Big Ten finish: Ninth
Last year's grade: B-
Volleyball — D
Why a D: Not counting the shortened spring 2021 season (delayed from the fall because of COVID), last year's 13-16 record was the worst for Illinois since the 2002 team also went 13-16 midway through Don Hardin's tenure as coach.
High point: Getting a win at Purdue is basically tradition at this point. Last September's 4-1 victory, fueled by 17 kills from Taylor de Boer, was extra special, however, since it doubled as Illinois' first against a top 10 opponent since 2021.
Low point: Illinois moved to 13-11 overall and 8-7 in the Big Ten after beating Washington on Nov. 14. The door was still open for an at-large NCAA tournament berth. It slammed shut with the Illini losing their final five matches of the season.
Big Ten finish: 10th (tie)
Last year's grade: C+
Men's cross-country — D-
Why a D-: A limited schedule with just three events before the postseason didn't give Illinois much chance. The Illini didn't run at all in the month of September. When they did get on the course, not much in the way of success followed.
High point: Joshua Daggett's fifth-place finish in 17 minutes, 41.90 seconds across the 6-kilometer course at the University of Illinois Golf Course in Savoy was the best in the Illini's runner-up team finish at their own Fighting Illini Invitational.
Low point: Illinois' final tune-up before the Big Ten championships did not go well. The Illini finished 24th out of 31 teams at Pre-Nationals in Columbia, Mo., with Daggett again the leader at 24:19.9 for the 8-kilometer race.
Big Ten finish: 13th
Last year's grade: C
Women's cross-country — D-
Why a D-: The Illinois women's schedule was the same as the men's — brief. As in also taking the entire month of September off brief. The Illini women were at touch better in the postseason, though, finishing 15th at the NCAA Midwest Regionals.
High point: A second-place finish from freshman Nora Wollen, who covered the 4-kilometer course at the Orange and Blue in 13 minutes, 18.90 seconds, helped Illinois finish third at the Fighting Illini Invitational to start the season.
Low point: Pre-Nationals was also a stumbling block for the Illinois women, with a 26th-place finish among the 38 teams running at Gans Creek Cross Country Course. Wollen was the top finisher, running 20:33.7 to finish 50th on the 6-kilometer track.
Big Ten finish: 13th
Last year's grade: C-
Women's gymnastics — D-
Why a D-: Chloe Cho followed up her impressive freshman season with more of the same this year. Team success was harder to come by, however, with Illinois posting a 5-14 overall record and a 1-8 mark in the Big Ten.
High point: The Illini picked up their lone Big Ten victory of the season during their longest road trip, taking down Washington by 0.075 points at Alaska Airlines Arena. Cho (vault) and Lyden Saltness (uneven bars) claimed a pair of individual event titles.
Low point: Finishing 11th out of 12 teams at the Big Ten championships was reflective of Illinois' challenging season. The Illini scored 195.125 points, with Summer Clancy's tie for fifth in vault the highest individual event finish for the team.
Big Ten finish: 11th
Last year's grade: C-
Swimming and diving — D-
Why a D-: Simply put, Illinois remains mostly uncompetitive in the Big Ten. The Illini went 0-4 against conference opponents during the regular season and then finished last at the Big Ten championships for the fourth time in the last eight years.
High point: The most lopsided win of Illinois' seven this past season came in a 262-85 victory against Vanderbilt in Terre Haute, Ind. The Illini won seven events, with Sara Jass leading the way with wins in the 200 breaststroke and 400 individual medley.
Low point: Illinois' three-day stay in Minneapolis for the Big Ten championships was brutal. The Illini finished 88 1/2 points behind 13th-place Iowa and a whopping 1,047 1/2 points behind league champs Michigan.
Big Ten finish: 14th
Last year's grade: D-
Softball — F
Why an F: The 2026 season was, without question, the worst in program history. Illinois has only won fewer than 15 games twice. The first came in 2000 when the inaugural team went 13-17. The other came in 2020 with an 11-11 season ended by a pandemic.
High point: A 15-39 campaign didn't have many options. The most commanding win in a 3-20 Big Ten slate, though, was a 14-6 victory in five innings against Minnesota on March 28 that featured an Eileen Donohue home run.
Low point: UCLA's path to the Women's College World Series included three games at Eichelberger Field. The Bruins swept the series with three run-shortened victories of 17-0, 10-1 and 18-0.
Big Ten finish: 16th
Last year's grade: D-
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