Swimming, on the surface, is a sport between you and crisp pool water, separated by floating lane lines. Your mind and body are focused on pushing you to the limit in an environment not meant for the average human to succeed.

However, for the Polson swim team, that limit is not just a personal challenge but one they faced head-on together. That is what made this season so different from the rest.

The Polson swim team wrapped up their season on Feb. 14 when they finished up at the Montana High School Association All-Class Swim Meet in Great Falls.

In terms of results, it was an outright success. Seven swimmers placed at the meet, with the teams securing two placements in the relays as well. The boys also finished second in Class A/B, following up just behind Billings Central.

Of those swimmers who placed, senior Teague McElwee was the only one to be a state champion in his events. He not only won in the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly but he broke the all-class state record for the latter.

“ I was pretty confident before I even got to the meet that I was gonna break the record,” McElwee said. “Like, it sounds like it comes off a certain way, but I knew based on the times that I'd gone during the club season and earlier in the season that I was probably gonna break it. So it pretty much felt normal. I was just confident and relaxed.”

Even though McElwee was confident in his own performance, the fact was that he didn’t do it all by himself. The crux of his work came from a camaraderie and trust that the Polson swimming team has been building ever since he joined it as a freshman at Polson High School.

Polson head swimming coach Morgan (Zimmer) Gibbs has watched as this team has changed and blossomed under its current senior leadership. Now, as she watches this iteration of the team go their separate ways, she hopes to keep that culture alive throughout.

“ I'm hoping that continues but the fact is that they helped lead really focused workouts and kept the focus on things like what the workout is. They also let everyone know it's okay to be tired instead of me just saying it and that's a good thing. That's what we're building off of. So that you get stronger and faster.”

While the workouts were focused and the team trained hard, Gibbs also wanted those kids to showcase their real talents, which is being good when no one else would be.

“It's more about them just being good people and good sportsmanship is really important to me,” Gibbs said. “It was important to know what the difference between being a coachable athlete is and just like kind of being a know-it-all. It takes all of us to influence that.”

That influence helped put both McElwee and his fellow senior teammate, Truman Sawyer, in charge of helping acclimate their younger peers into the team. 

“ It's definitely probably one of the best parts of the season,” Sawyer said. “Just getting to hang out with these people. Definitely all friends, like we've all been friends for probably a few years now. Even like the freshmen, we have all known each other for a while through the club and through other sports and just schooling in general.”

The community that swimming has built for these students not only helped them define friendships but it also helped them accomplish the goal of winning. 

With a successful season behind them, what does next year look like?

For the seniors, it is new horizons. McElwee will go on to swim at the University of Omaha in Nebraska. Sawyer is finishing out his senior year with not just a swimming runner-up title but a soccer state championship as well.

For the returnees like junior Amelia Stene, it’s about getting recruiting younger athletes and building up a program with significant momentum. She especially wants to see a more robust girls side of the team as the boys side continues to thrive.

Stene predicts Polson will have "a really strong team next year" but hopes more girls will join so they can compete in relays too. "We only have three girls this year, so we didn't have relays."

"I know we'll be really solid next year with the two girls who are on it now. They got really, really close to finals," she said. 

It is hard to recreate chemistry on a team. It is a science no one can master. But for the Polson swim team, they created something magical.

As Gibbs, McElwee, Sawyer and Stene chatted in a waiting area in the Mission Valley Aquatic Center, swimmers alike splashed and dashed through manmade ripples. Kids of varying ages passed by each other in preparation for the next race or in preparation for when Flathead Lake gets warm enough to take a dip.

They looked on at what brought them together: A pool and a goal to create something bigger than a state tournament plaque. That’s the ripple effect a high school swim team can have.

    The Polson boys swim team poses with the second-place Class A/B state swim meet plaque on Feb. 14 in Great Falls. (Morgan Gibbs Zimmer Photo)