By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
After years of swimming competitively and for fun in Sitka, Jordan Gagner signed last week to swim with the Midland University Warriors. When she graduates from Sitka High this spring, Gagner will join her brother, J.D., and a close friend on the Midland squad, in Fremont, Nebraska.
After a hiatus in her swimming career, she wasn’t certain that she would swim in college.
“I’m really excited to have a set plan right now… My brother swims on their team, so I’ve been contacting the coach probably since January of my junior year. But I only just started swimming again my junior and senior years, so I really wasn’t expecting to swim in college at all,” Gagner told the Sentinel over the phone.
In the pool since childhood, Gagner said she finds swimming comforting.
“I honestly really like the routine of practice, and being in the pool is comforting, almost. I learned to swim when I was three, it’s just always been something that I’ve done,” she said.
A backstroke specialist on the high school team, Gagner intends to continue swimming back in college.
“The 100 (yard) back is what I swim. I swim some freestyle events too, but I stick with the backstroke. The 100 back is the farthest distance in high school, but hopefully I want to do the 100 and 200 back as the main events in college,” she said.
While the pandemic curtailed the 2020 swim season, Gagner in October still notched a first place finish in the 100 backstroke in a meet, finishing in 1:07.65. Gagner has also participated on the Wolves’ 200-yard medley relay team, which took fourth place in an invitational meet in November.
Looking back on the shortened season, Gagner highlighted the precautions that the team took in order to remain safe.
“It’s definitely been very interesting. We were not really allowed to shower or really use the locker rooms. We had five minutes before and after practice when we could be in the locker rooms. And we wore our masks as much as possible right up until we got in the pool… Everyone had to wear their masks on deck,” she said.
She noted that Midland’s women’s swimming program is fairly new.
“It’s really small, it’s a private college. Most of the students there go there on some sort of athletic scholarship, they have a ton of different sports. I’m pretty sure for the women’s swim team it’s going to be the fourth year next year they’ve had it,” she said.
The swimmer anticipates a combination of swim, gym, and dry land calisthenic workouts.
“They do doubles every day and I’m not sure, they do lifting in a gym and dry land practices, but I don’t know if those are extras on top of doubles,” she said.
Academically, Gagner plans to study biology, and cited her time studying science in Sitka as an inspiration.
“I’m planning on majoring in biology and getting a double minor in chemistry and math. I’ve done a few of the programs with the Sitka Sound Science Center – the summer programs are really interesting and formed my liking of science,” she said.
At the moment, however, Gagner is taking some time out of the pool to dance and compete with the Sitka High track and field team this season.
“I’m actually not swimming at all (right now). Currently I dance, so I am getting ready for a performance that we have in late April,” she said. “And I recently joined the track team. I haven’t swum since November.”
This track season with the Wolves, she plans to compete in hurdles.
