Illinois Wesleyan University Women's Softball

OVERALL: 237-99-1, .705 (eight seasons, 2017-24) CCIW: 100-26, .794 (five seasons, 2017-19, 2024) The recipient of a number of honors as a player at Illinois State and a former assistant coach at Illinois Wesleyan, Tiffany Prager was chosen as IWU's next head softball coach in August 2016. The 2025 campaign will be her ninth at the helm of the Titans.  Under the direction of Prager, the Titans have won four College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Regular Season Championships. Prager's teams have claimed the CCIW Tournament title five times and have made five NCAA Tournament appearances. Three of her squads made the NCAA Division III World Series, including a runner-up finish in 2018. In all, Illinois Wesleyan has seen 42 student-athletes earn All-CCIW with Prager at the helm, along with two CCIW Player of the Year awardees, three CCIW Hitters of the Year, and two CCIW Pitcher of the Year honorees. She mentored the program's first-ever Gold Glove Award recipients in 2024 as first baseman Ava Khoury and third baseman Casey Wissmiller garnered the prestigious honor. Prager and her staff have been voted the conference's coaching staff of the year three times (2019, 2023, 2024). Most recently, Prager's squad finished up the 2024 season with a 31-12 overall record. The Titans swept the CCIW regular season and tournament championships, making an NCAA Tournament appearance. A total of seven student-athletes received All-CCIW status, all garnering first team distinction. Gianna Certa was voted the conference's pitcher of the year, while Bailey Turner was named CCIW Defensive Player of the Year.  IWU posted a 27-15 record (12-4 CCIW) and won the CCIW Tournament Championship in 2022, while playing one of the toughest schedules in the country. Colleen Palczynski repeated as the CCIW's Player of the Year and was voted NFCA All-Region. Along with Palczynski, Hayley Earl and Bailey Turner were first team selections. Nina Mardjetko and Natalie Grubczak garnered Second Team All-CCIW honors. In a shortened 2020 season, Prager guided the Titans to a 9-1 record, including an upset of No. 2 ranked Chirstopher Newport. IWU finished the year ranked No. 4 in the final NFCA Coaches Poll. Additionally, the season saw Ally Wiegand named the NFCA Pitcher of the Week following a perfect game in IWU's season opener. Wiegand and fellow senior Sam Berghoff also went on to earn CoSIDA Academic All-District honors and advanced to the Academic All-American ballot. In just her second season as IWU head coach, Prager led the Titans to a 40-14-1 record and a second place finish in the NCAA Division III Championships. IWU made its 13th NCAA Division III Tournament and advanced to the final eight for the third consecutive season. In her first season, Prager's team had a 37-15 record and played in the NCAA Division III Championships for the 12th time in school history. IWU was in the round of eight for the second straight season.    A Titan softball assistant in 2012 and 2013, Prager was an assistant coach at the University of Dayton for three seasons. She served as the top assistant for the Flyers softball staff from 2015 until taking over at IWU.   At Dayton, she helped lead the Flyers to the program's first Atlantic 10 regular season championship and first appearance in the A-10 conference title game in 2015, when the squad set season records for wins (39), conference wins (20), and batting average (.291). As a graduate assistant at Illinois State in 2014, Prager assisted with day-to-day program operations, recruitment, hitting and defensive instruction and coaching first base.  She also coordinated travel and meal arrangements and monitored team academic study tables. Prager was a three-year starter and two-year captain for Illinois State as a second baseman and still ranks among the all-time ISU leaders in doubles, sacrifice hits and games played in a season.  She was a first team all-Missouri Valley Conference selection as a senior when she hit .350 with nine doubles. As a sophomore she was a second team All-MVC selection and was named to the 2006 MVC all-tournament team. In 2007, Prager led Illinois State and the MVC with 16 doubles and was seventh in the nation in sacrifice hits per game (0.42). She hit .304 with 59 hits, 36 runs and a .418 slugging percentage. Prager, who amassed impressive academic honors to match her softball feats, earned her bachelor's degree in business administration in 2008 and received her master's degree in sports administration in December 2014. She received ISU's Laurie Mabry Award in 2007, which is given to a student-athlete whom best exemplifies positive values and attitudes that can be learned through athletics.  For two years at ISU, Prager was an academic all-district selection, a first team all-MVC Scholar-Athlete, a recipient of the State Farm Student-Athlete Academic Excellence Good Neighbor Award (2006, 2007) and a National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-America Scholar-Athlete (2005, 2006). A product of Stanford (Ill.) Olympia High School, she led the Spartans to the IHSA Class A state softball championships in 2002 and 2003 and a second place finish in 2001. She was elected to the Olympia High School Hall of Fame. She began her coaching career as a hitting instructor for individual players and summer teams in the Bloomington-Normal area.   Year Overall Record Conference Record 2017 37-15 # 11-5 $ 2018 40-14-1 # 14-2 * $ 2019 39-10 # 15-1 * $ 2020 9-1 ^ -- 2021 27-16 21-9 2022 27-15 # 12-4 $ 2023 27-16 14-2 * 2024 31-12 # 13-3 *$ 237-99-1 (.705) 100-26 (.794) # - NCAA Tournament Appearance * - CCIW Regular Season Champion ^ - Season shortened due to COVID-19 $ - CCIW Postseason Tournament Champion Updated Dec. 5, 2024  

Brooke Walker joined the Illinois Wesleyan swimming & diving coaching staff as an assistant coach prior to the 2025-26 academic year. Walker comes to IWU following a decorated career at Augustana College, and officially began her coaching duties August 1, 2025. In year one at Illinois Wesleyan, Walker helped three Titans to CCIW Individual Championships, nine All-CCIW performances, and was part of a coaching staff named the women's swimming & diving Co-CCIW Coaching Staff of the Year. All together, Illinois Wesleyan took home 13 CCIW medals, and finished the conference championship meet with 55 personal-best times.    Walker, a captain on now-IWU head coach Dan Lloyd's squad, earned a Bachelor of Arts in business administration finance and management along with a minor in communication studies and data analytics from Augustana in May. A native of Le Roy, Ill., Walker was a member of three College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Championships, as she helped guide the Vikings to titles in 2022, 2024, and 2025, serving as a team captain on the last championship.     Walker earned All-CCIW honors all four years, including CCIW championship titles in the 1650-yard freestyle (2023), 200-yard breaststroke (2025), 400-yard medley relay (2023 and 2025), and the 800-yard free relay (2024). She was also all-conference in the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing second in 2025, the 1650-yard freestyle, finishing runner-up in 2022, 2024, and 2025, and the 500-yard freestyle, with a third-place finish in 2023 and 2024.    Following a strong sophomore campaign, Walker was named the MVP for Augustana’s women’s team. Walker was twice named Academic All-CCIW, earning the accolade in 2023 and 2024. She holds Augie’s school record in the 200-yard breaststroke, which she broke in 2025, and was a part of the 800-yard freestyle relay that broke the school record in 2024, and bettered the mark in 2025.    Along with her coaching duties at Illinois Wesleyan, Walker will also serve as an assistant coach for the City of Bloomington’s recreational youth swim team.

Nikki Miller joined the Illinois Wesleyan softball coaching staff prior to the 2017-18 school year, and enters her eighth season in 2024. She works primarily with the Titan pitching staff. In her first seven years on Prager's staff, Miller has mentored Ally Wiegand to CCIW Pitcher of the Year and Schutt Sports/NFCA Division III Pitcher of the Year honors. Wiegand and Brea Walker reeled in a combined five All-CCIW selections, while IWU led the nation in team earned run average with a 1.02 clip in 2019. Overall, Miller has coached a nine All-CCIW pitchers and two CCIW Pitchers of the Year (Wiegand & Gianna Certa). Overall, Illinois Wesleyan has recorded two no-hitters and a perfect game in Miller's tenure. Miller was an assistant coach for two seasons at Division III Wittenberg (Ohio) University and also coached softball at Normal Community West High School and for the Bloomington-Normal Girls Softball Association Xplosion youth organization in 2013 and 2014. She also has worked a variety of softball camps and clinics across several states dating back to 2009 and was named as the BNGSA’s first-ever Director of Coaching in October 2017. A native of Starkville, Miss., Miller was a four-year letterwinner as a first baseman at Lake Forest College. A career .311 hitter, Miller served as a team captain as a senior. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2013 and earned her master’s degree in sport management from Illinois State in May 2015, where she also monitored academic progress of student-athletes.    

Dan Lloyd, a proven program builder and veteran coach,  was named the director of swimming & diving Tuesday, April 15, 2025. In year one at Illinois Wesleyan, Lloyd guided three Titans to CCIW Individual Championships, nine All-CCIW performances, and led a coaching staff named the women's swimming & diving Co-CCIW Coaching Staff of the Year. All together, Illinois Wesleyan took home 13 CCIW medals, and finished the conference championship meet with 55 personal-best times. Lloyd spent the 11 years prior leading the Augustana swimming and diving programs, where he led the Vikings to six CCIW Championships over the past four years. The Augie women won the title in 2022, 2024, and 2025, while the men took home titles in each of the past three seasons. The women's title in 2022 marked the program's first in 25 years, while 2024 was the first time the men's and women's program claimed the titles in the same season in school history. During his tenure in Rock Island, Ill. Lloyd coached 64 CCIW Individual Champions, two NCAA qualifiers, and led his squads to an 83-41 dual-meet record. He coached the program's first All-American in 39 years and his swimmers produced 104 All-CCIW performances, 80 program records, seven NCAA cut times, and five CCIW records. He coached the CCIW First-Year Student-Athlete of the Meet in 2023 (men) and 2024 (women), as well as the CCIW Men's Swimming Student-Athlete of the Year in 2019 and 2025. Most recently, Lloyd's Augustana teams won the 2025 CCIW Championships behind three conference meet records.  Illinois Wesleyan will be Lloyd's fourth stop around the conference, as he was previously an assistant coach at Wheaton. He helped lead the Thunder women to four straight conference championships as well as a top-10 national finish in 2013. Lloyd was instrumental in the mentorship of three-time national champion Kirsty Nitz, who set a national record in the 50 freestyle. In his final season at Wheaton, the men's team also captured a CCIW title. Lloyd's experience includes stops at Hendrix College and Lawrence University as well as Normal West High School. In 2007-08, while serving as Lawrence's interim head coach, Lloyd was voted the Midwest Conference Women's Coach of the Year. Lloyd was named the IHSA Girls Sectional Coach of the Year in 2005 after leading Normal West to an IHSA sectional title - the first in the history of the school district.  Lloyd's other coaching endeavors include working under coaches Dave Durden, Nort Thornton and Nick Folker at the University of California in Berkeley California; running the Josh Davis Ultimate Swim Camp with five-time Olympic medalist Josh Davis; working the Total Performance and Collegeswimming.com swim camps and serving as Clinic Coordinator at the University of Michigan Swim Camp. Lloyd coached with Club Wolverine at the University of Michigan, where he worked with six Olympians, including Michael Phelps, under legendary distance coach Jon Urbanchek. He was also a clinic coach at the elite level at the United States Naval Academy Water Polo Camp in 2009. Prior to his career in coaching, Lloyd worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., including serving as the web technology director for the United States House of Representatives House Administration committee. He has been a featured speaker for countless clinics and events, including Future Coaches of America and emcee for the Safe Families for Children annual gala. A native of Normal, Lloyd was a standout at Millikin University. There, he was a five-time All-America performer, a four-time team MVP, and a nine-time individual conference champion. He was voted the CCIW's Swimmer of the Year in 2000 and received Millikin's Lindsey Medallion Athlete of the Year in 2002. Lloyd was inducted into Millikin's Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.  

Penny Brooks was hired as Illinois Wesleyan's first ever spirit squad director in March of 2025. She also serves as the head cheerleading coach and manages Illinois Wesleyan's mascot, Tommy the Titan. Brooks was a four-year member of the cheer team at the University of Minnesota, where she led numerous cheer clinics and camps for the community and incoming students. After graduating from Minnesota, she went on to become a personal trainer and yoga instructor. Brooks earned her undergraduate degree in elementary education in 2022.