June 12, 2025
Girls Swimming

LT swimmer Hoffman meets former record holder

Louisa Hoffman broke a 27-year-old school record and met the woman she took it from

By Dan Santaromita

On Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, Louisa Hoffman (left) tells Jennifer Eck Wild, of Glen Ellyn, about the day she broke Wild's 50-yard freestyle record at Lyons Township High School that stood for 27 years. Wild's school record of :24.34 in the 50-yard freestyle was recently broken by Louisa in :24.14. This was the team's oldest standing record. (Staff photo)

Swimmers everywhere see the names that have stood on record boards for years. Lyons Township senior Louisa Hoffman saw Jennifer (Eck) Wild’s name on the record board in the 50-freestyle at the LT pool in Western Springs dating back to her time with Lyons Swim Club before high school.

Hoffman broke the 27-year-old record on Sept. 1 at New Trier with a time of 24.11 seconds. When Hoffman got to meet the woman she took the record from it added some perspective.

“I at least was trying to picture what she looked like so I kind of imagined a typical sprinter,” Hoffman said. “I just imagined someone really, really tall, which she is, and really skinny, which she is so she’s kind of exactly how I pictured her to look. It’s still weird just because that name has been up on that board for as long as I’ve been swimming here. To finally see her was cool.”

Hoffman doesn’t have that typical sprinter’s height, but has been successful by improving her underwater push on the turn and her starting reaction time.

“That makes it even more impressive,” Wild said. “She has to work even harder. She has to have more stroke rotations to have the same arm length as what I would.”

Hoffman wasn’t always a top swimmer for LT. Her improvement has led her to a commitment to swim for Cornell next year.

“Louisa had started out in one of our lowest lanes when she started as a freshman and didn’t have a lot of experience swimming,” LT coach Kurt Johns said. “That I thought was really telling how she’s been able to progress and mature and develop her swimming ability in such a short time.”

Wild’s college swimming career was highlighted by achieving All-American status for Michigan. The mother of three currently resides in Glen Ellyn, has a career that included jobs for IBM and Ernst and Young and is also a cancer survivor. She spoke to the Lions during a practice on Tuesday, Oct. 30, and emphasized that hard work is essential to succeeding in any aspect of life.

“I’m pretty excited that my record was broken,” Wild said. “I didn’t know it was still up."

Hoffman helped lead LT to its first outright West Suburban Silver title since 2002. She will swim in the 50 free, 100 free and two relays at sectionals on Nov. 10 at Downers Grove South. Hoffman will be looking to get back to the hectic scene of state swimming.

“It’s just so surreal,” Hoffman said. “The moment from when you dive off the blocks and you hear the starter get silent and everything gets silent. Then when you pop up after your start it’s crazy loud. It’s such an insane feeling to hear the silence to how loud it gets.”