Opalka making her mark early in swimming scene

Sophomore Catherine “Cat” Opalka has been swimming for as long as she can remember.

All that hard work has paid off.

 This year at the state swim meet in Great Falls, Opalka took first in the 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley. She also swam a leg of the 400 freestyle relay, where the Wildcats took home the championship in that race as well. She also swam a leg of the 200 IM relay, where the team took fourth.

It was a great weekend of swimming for Opalka, who says she is trying to get better everyday.

Like many other Columbia Falls swimmers, the Pinewood Park pool was where she started out, taking swim lessons in the summer. The pool, shaded by some of the oldest ponderosa pines in town, is a community hotspot in the summer. 

When she was 8, something clicked — “I got really good at it.”

Opalka has participated in swimming throughout her entire high school career, also doing cheer last winter. Freshman season, she broke three school records. This year, she re-broke all of those and sealed her name on the girls 100 backstroke school record, now 59.89 seconds. 

Opalka is always training. The team practices five days a week at The Wave in Whitefish. 

She swims between 4,000 and 5,000 yards each practice.

She also competes in club swimming year round. However, when the two seasons overlap she trains the high school program. One week this season, she recounted having a high school meet on a Friday night and drove down to Missoula for a club meet the following Saturday morning.

She gets her rest though; she says she naps between an hour and a half to two hours a day in the time between school and training. She also has a 4.0 grade point average.  

While it’s a great sport for injury as it’s not as impactful, swimming certainly comes with its challenges. 

“It’s not necessarily a joint pain you feel, it’s a muscle pain,” Opalka said. After a hard, lengthy workout, “you get home and feel like you hit a wall.”

Opalka considers the 500 free the hardest event in high school swimming. For some context, certain swimmers who dabble in track consider the 200 free somewhat comparable to a 400 meter dash, which leaves the competitor completely anaerobic after the minute-or-so race, if you’re running it right. The 500 free is a test of pure endurance. 

During a swim race,“You’re not supposed to breathe — you go faster if you don’t,” she said.

Not every swim team is fortunate enough to have the small-town feel of the Wildcats. Billings Central, for example, has 40-something kids on their swim team, according to Opalka. 

She enjoys the small Columbia Falls squad.

“It makes it really nice for practice, with only 12 people,” she said. 

The swim team is close. Alana Trevino, Jackson Schubert, Kensley Cheff, and Lucy Hiner, some of the juniors or “jun squad” are her closest teammates. 

Kyle Babcock, the team’s newest head coach, has been coaching her since 2022, Opalka said. 

“It’s scary going to meets…not because of team but individual pressure.”

 Club swim’s state is at Butte. Opalka is “seeking better times to qualify for more events at sectionals. In club swimming, sectionals are a step above regionals.”

She’s not done breaking records, she hopes.

Opalka still has ambitious goals to conquer: 

“By senior year, I’d like to go sub 57 [seconds] in the 100 fly.” she said. “If I’m gonna be swimming, I might as well improve,” she said.