The high school swim season for Bigfork, Columbia Falls, Flathead, Glacier and Whitefish begins Saturday with the Kalispell Invitational at The Summit.

Also attending the season opener are C.M. Russell, Great Falls High and three Missoula schools — Big Sky, Hellgate and Sentinel.

Competition begins at noon.

This will be the first of six outings for Flathead and Glacier. The two schools will also host a meet on Jan. 10 at The Summit.

The state meet is Feb. 13-14 in Missoula.

Flathead and Glacier enter the first outing with good numbers regarding turnouts and benefit from the return of some talented veterans.

Freshmen swimmers at Glacier make up almost half the girls roster while the Flathead boys are enjoying a banner go with 20 athletes in the pool for daily practice.

“It’s nice to see a lot of guys come out,” Flathead/Glacier swim coach Dave Lillard said.

“They are all good athletes.”

A good portion of those boys are first-year swimmers.

“It’s nice to have athletes cross-training, who have some aerobic ability,” Lillard said.

“Hopefully they can transfer that to the pool.”

Juniors Josh Gruber, Blaine Normandeau, Ethan Timm and senior Brian Towner have state experience for the Flathead boys. Lillard says all have made huge improvements each year and he expects that to hold true this winter in their freestyle events.

Seven Flathead girls with state experience return, led by junior Maggie Mulcahy, a strong distance swimmer; Maddie Huestis, a sophomore in her second year and regarded as an up and coming freestyler; and Amalia Csaplar, a junior who Lillard calls “a great overall swimmer.”

Juniors Kendra Leaming, Madison Lovett, Darby Mackenstadt and senior Sara Jensen are the other veterans.

The Bravettes have 18 swimmers on the roster.

The Glacier girls will be led by Emma Hornby, a junior, along with a talented group of freshmen.

Hornby, in her third season, specializes in the backstroke and freestyle.

Lillard says the girls will have a lot of talent in the relays with freshmen Lauren Harmon, Jessica Loyda and Olivia Gibson, sophomore Bailey Smith and Hornby.

Lillard said some of the freshman participated in KATS and “are in good shape already. Some are former swimmers getting back into it. If we can hold on to them (freshmen) for four years, they will be really strong assets (for the program).”

Sophomore Carley Denton and senior Jackie Stenberg will help boost Glacier’s fortunes in the pool.

Nate Burnham, a sophomore, and John Putnam, a junior, will be the leaders for the Glacier boys.

Burnham competes in the freestyle and backstroke. Putnam is a breaststroker.

“They have improved a lot from last year,” Lillard said.

James Bouda is one of three freshmen on the Glacier roster. He will help the Wolfpack in the freestyle and butterfly events.

Glacier has just seven boys competing.

Columbia Falls and Whitefish will make their program debut on Saturday. The two schools practice together nightly at The Wave but will compete as separate teams.

“This year we finally got it going,” Columbia Falls/Whitefish coach Mike Nelson said.

“I helped a lot ... there was a good group of us. Everybody helped out.”

He said funding was an issue, “but the communities have been great and we got it all figured out.”

Columbia Falls will have four boys and four girls competing on Saturday.

Whitefish will have six boys and 10 girls in the water.

“I was hoping for more from Columbia Falls,” Nelson said.

“We had 20 sign-up last year for the survey. Whitefish had eight (signup) last spring. We have 16 (out). That surprised us.”

For the first season, Nelson, who was a state 100-meter butterfly champion for Missoula Hellgate, hopes to “build a program.

“This is another option for kids who aren’t basketball players or wrestlers.

“I’m having a blast,” he said.

“Time goes by too fast for me. Hopefully they (swimmers) are enjoying themselves, too.”

Nelson feels he has a few swimmers who have a shot at making it to state.

“That’s my short-term goal,” he said.

“There is some talent out there that I didn’t know existed. I’m looking forward to (developing) that.”

Bigfork enters its second swim season under coach Charlotte Ball.

“Last year I was really proud of my girls,” she said.

“A lot of them never officially swam before. They all went to state, except for one, who was sick.”

Those advancing to state were: senior Cienna Degele, 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke; sophomore Celeste Rehbein, 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke; sophomore Kayleigh Beaulieu-Henion, 100 and 200 freestyle; sophomore Jessica Young, 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke; and sophomore Gabriella DiPaulo, 100 freestyle.

The season will get off to a slow start however, as the Valkyries will have just one entrant — Rehbein — competing on Saturday.

Bigfork has seven swimmers total, but one is sidelined with a cracked rib.

“This year our goals are to continue to grow and work on form and speed,” Ball said.

“With a smaller team this second year, I can really see the dedication in the girls I have and they are very serious about the work they put into their events. They continue to get better each practice and are such a fun group to be around. I’m really pleased with the work they did last year and am excited to see them all make personal improvements and relay bests this year.”