Diving Into New Waters

By Hope Morrison and August Hertz (Featured in PHS's Salishian)

 Only its third year in existence, the Polson High School swim team has brought home their first State title. They earned second place for the boy’s team overall, multiple individual state titles, and “a

whole lot of hardware,” saidhead coach Morgan Zimmer. Twenty-six medals were brought home by individual events and relays.

To qualify for State, swimmers must rank sixteenth or better in any individual event over the course of the season. Multiple swimmers, including freshmen Grace Olson, Truman Sawyer, and Teague McElwee, sophomore Lachlan Sloan, junior August Hertz, and seniors Hope Mor-

rison and Aspen McKee held positions top ten or better

across multiple events. The Polson boys 400-yard freestyle relay even had the number one time going into State. All twelve members of the team qualified for State this year,

making it the team’s most successful year so far.

Polson’s impact on the competition is no new feat. In past years, junior August Hert and graduated Mason Sloan both made huge waves at State by continuously bringing home State Champion titles

in their individual events. Polson’s swim team has only gotten stronger. This change can be accredited not only to the improvement of recurring members but also to the team’s freshmen, all of whom medaled in all of their events. Another factor in the improvement is a brand new coach. Morgan Zimmer was previously a swim coach at Missoula Hellgate High School and one of Montana’s largest club teams, Missoula Aquatic Club. She decided to “bite the bullet” of stepping down,

so she could move to Polson. “The main difference has been the number of swimmers

I’m coaching. I went from having a combined class team of 90 to 120 swimmers to the

whopping 12 that we had, but I think the best change was getting to know swimmers on a more personal level, getting to know their strengths and weaknesses, and not having to decide who did and didn’t get to go to State.”

While Morgan is popular among her swimmers, she’s not easy on them. “When the season started, I was taken aback by her change in workouts,” said senior Hope Morrison. “Just the warmup was over a mile long, and the workout was generally even longer. We all felt like we were dying at first, but by the end, I feel much stronger than I ever have been. The hard work paid off, as we all dropped signifi-

cant amounts of time.” By the end of the season, all team members swam at least the length of Flathead Lake five times, which is 136.4 miles in total.

Swimming was added to Polson’s winter sports roster three years ago, after years of fundraising and petitioning the school board. Since 2013, Mission Valley Aquatics has operated and funded a non-school affiliated club swim team known as the Lake Monsters, open to kids 5 to 18 years old. The majority of swimmers currently on Polson’s team began competitive swimming on the Lake Monsters, but ever since the opening of the facility, it has been a goal to create a team affiliated with Polson High

School as well. This dream became reality seven years later. To add swimming to Polson’s winter

sports roster, the team was put into a 5-year contract to fundraise $7,000 a year to cover the costs of equipment, pool rental, and traveling costs. This is in contrast to the school’s brand new baseball

team, which wasn’t required to do any fundraising. The swim team has successfully passed their fundraising goal each year. The team has raised money through a variety of means, including selling potatoes donated by the Lake Family, selling raffle tickets at the Cherry Festival, raking leaves

off lawns across town, and most recently, competing in a pledge-per-lap swimathon event. On January 5, “Each swimmer swam at least 100 laps,” equivalent to 1.4 miles. “I’ve never been a part of a

team that’s done that before,” said Morgan, raising about $1,200 in just one day. In the 2022-2023 season, the team raised over $3,000, allowing the team to purchase custom parkas to wear at competitions.

While the team has had great success bringing in experienced swimmers, it is still a goal to recruit more first time swimmers. “It’s so cool to see the team progressing further than we’d ever envisioned,” said senior swimmer Aspen McKee. “In three years we went from a five person team to twelve people qualifying for state and taking home medals, which is just wild to me. I still think the team can

go so many more places, but we need more numbers. The more people we have, the better the team can do at both regular meets and at State.”

While swimming is a notoriously difficult sport, it still has numerous benefits for even

new swimmers. “Swimming is an incredible form of cross training,” said Mckee. “It’s a great way to stay in shape between seasons if you don’t have a winter sport. Not only is it also super fun, but you get to meet new people and develop a skill you’ll be able to use for the rest of your life.”

On that sentiment, Morgan added, “You can get in and not think about what’s bothering you and escape for a second, especially at practice. Nine out of ten swimmers are on honor roll, and that’s no coincidence. It’s a mentally tough sport, because you can’t rely on a teammate. You can’t hear your

teammates cheering for you. You have to swim for you.”