Swim team gets a gift that prepares them year after year for competition

Photo by Sarah Brown

Galena swimmer Isaac McElwee at the Wishbone Invitational.

By AUTUMN JENSEN-ROEHL, staff writer

The Galena swimming pool recently received three new lane lines which will allow them to practice for meets when they travel out of town.

These lane lines are designed to mark the lanes and annihilate the wake between the lanes. The new lane lines replace the old and unoffical rope-and-float lane lines ruined in the 2013 flood.

“I really feel they will go a long ways in making our kids “feel” a part of the swim culture. We aren’t just swimmers from a little Podunk village, we’re competitors who can hold our own,” wrote coach Jason Harris in an email.

These new lane lines didn’t come cheap; they cost $2,012.82.

However, the swim team, nor the community, did not have to pay for them. The new lane lines were donated by the USA Swimming’s Fairbanks chapter. USA Swimming is the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States.

Mr. Harris contacted USA Swimming’s Fairbanks chapter looking for some used lane lines that a pool was getting rid of. They gave them brand new ones instead.

“They are the real deal and a thing of beauty,” wrote Mr. Harris.