Cameron Dunne swam for the Hinsdale Central Red Devils before completing five years of NCAA athletics. Now the 25-year-old Hinsdale native is trading the pool for a stage in Las Vegas, where he'll compete as Mister Indiana at the Mister USA 2026 finals beginning Sunday, Aug. 16.

The stakes are high. The prize package includes $100,000 in cash, a $50,000 modeling contract and a ticket to represent the United States at Mister Universe in Los Angeles in September.

Dunne's path to the national stage started late in 2025, when he began posting daily fitness and bodybuilding content on Instagram. His audience grew quickly enough to catch the attention of Mister USA organizers, who called him early in 2026 and encouraged him to compete.

"I didn't expect all of this," Dunne told The Hinsdalean on July 29.

Dunne earned the Mister Indiana title through a series of interviews. Though he doesn't live in Indiana, his twin brother Conor is a first-year law student at Indiana University, and their mother is a Purdue graduate. The brothers traveled together to the Rose Bowl to watch Indiana's historic 16-0 football season.

After wrapping his collegiate swim career in the summer of 2024, Dunne completed a master's degree in business and is now building a career in finance and marketing while studying for the CFA exam. He's also preparing to start a new job as a financial advisor in Florida.

His fitness coach is Eric Janicki, an Evanston native and IFBB pro bodybuilder with roughly 1.8 million Instagram followers. Dunne's daily regimen includes exercise, nutrition and prioritizing sleep.

Hinsdale Central's boys swimming program has won four consecutive IHSA state championships through February 2026, and Dunne said the discipline he built in the pool still drives him. In a February introduction video for the Mister USA delegate series, he said swimming "taught me resilience, consistency, and how to push through discomfort."

The preliminary competition at Area15 Las Vegas begins Sunday, Aug. 16, with a first round of interviews, formalwear and swimwear. The top 20 advance, and the winner will be crowned Sunday, Aug. 23. If Dunne makes the final round, he plans to play drums for the talent portion. He played his whole life and was a member of a Hinsdale-based band called Apollo Four with Conor and two friends.

Broadcast details had not been finalized as of late July, but Dunne said he expects friends and family will be able to watch live.