The 2024-25 season marked both the end of one special era for the Hillsdale College women's swimming and diving team, and, potentially, the start of a new one.

The Chargers sent off a decorated senior class that includes two of the greatest swimmers in program history off in style, while integrating an impressive freshman class that will hopefully keep Hillsdale's run of success going long into the future.

For All-Americans Megan Clifford and Elise Mason, the 2024-25 season marked their final one with the Chargers program, and both stars accomplished special things in their final go-around at Hillsdale.

Clifford broke her own school records in the 100 and 200 yard butterfly, and made history at the 2025 NCAA DII Championships in Indianapolis on Friday, March 14, placing ninth in the nation in the 200 fly with a time of 2:01.08 to earn All-American honors for the third time in her career in the event. The accomplishment makes her the first-ever three-time All-American in Hillsdale College women's swimming and diving history, breaking a tie with two-time All-Americans Colleen Rickard and Rachael Kurtz to stand alone among Chargers swimmers.

Mason, meanwhile, finished an unprecedented run of dominance at the conference level in distance freestyle events, taking titles at the 2025 G-MAC/MEC Championships in the 500, 1,000 and 1,650 freestyle for the fourth straight year to give her 13 conference titles during her time at Hillsdale. A 2022 All-American and a four-time national meet qualifier, Mason never lost a race in her three signature events to a G-MAC/MEC swimmer in four years in college, and will graduate holding Hillsdale's program records in all three events.

The end of Clifford and Mason's careers, along with past All-G-MAC swimmers Joanna Burnham and Emmalyse Dickhudt and the entirety of a decorated six-swimmer senior class, leave a big scoring void for the Chargers to make up for next season. Hillsdale took runner-up honors as a team at the G-MAC/MEC Championships in February, the Chargers' eighth consecutive top two conference finish, and will look to continue to add to that mark next season despite the loss of several top points-getters.

Luckily for the Chargers, there are some breakthrough swimmers from the 2024-25 campaign set to return. Matilyn Wilhelmsen won Co-Freshman of the Year honors in the G-MAC, the fifth Charger in eight seasons to win the award, and looked like the heir apparent to Mason in distance races. Wilhelmsen set NCAA DII B-cut marks in the 500, 1,000 and 1,650 freestyle races, just missing qualifying for the national meet, with top five times in Hillsdale history in all three events.

Along with Wilhelmsen, fellow freshman Ella Schafer also had a record-setting first season, winning a G-MAC/MEC title in the 200 freestyle and breaking the Hillsdale College record in the event while looking like a potential future star.

There's more than just the two freshmen to get excited about, as fellow freshman Ella Malone, and sophomores Alyson Early, Isabel Ondracek, Lauren Kamp and Irene Del Castro also posted new top 10 times in Hillsdale College history in at least one event to give Hillsdale a strong foundation to work with moving forward.

Hillsdale will look to continue to build its depth and get new faces to the national meet to build on the legacy set by Clifford and Mason in the seasons to come.