2025 Fall Preps Preview: Lewis and Clark senior swimmer Ava Swigart helps foster inclusive team atmosphere

Everything happens for a reason. If it weren’t for the challenges she faced on a previous swim team, Ava Swigart might not have moved from Oregon to Spokane and joined Lewis and Clark.

She might not have won three state titles, and she would not have played a crucial role in creating the welcoming and supportive culture of the area’s co-op team, which includes athletes from LC, Cheney, Ferris and North Central.

Over the past three years, Swigart has been a catalyst to help increase the numbers for LC’s swim team. In 2023, it was just her and three others: Anya Atkinson, Morgan Herr, and Anjali Richards. By 2024, 10 swimmers had joined. This year, they are the largest in the GSL with a roster standing at roughly 20 swimmers.

“They probably heard about the culture of the team and wanted in,” Swigart said. She knows a little about the subject though experience.

Swigart said the pressure to succeed on her previous team spawned cliques and an elitist mindset amongst the athletes and coaches. She believed a team atmosphere could feel differently and wanted to help foster that at LC. When swimming returned as a varsity sport her sophomore year, building a positive team culture was her top priority.

Along with the other original swimmers, she began building a legacy of acceptance and inclusion.

“For girls specifically, I know that there’s a lot of anxiety… even in practice I hated (racing) because I didn’t want to be seen as second place,” Swigart said. “I think that’s one of the good things we do here is even if you’re second place … you never feel like a second-class or second-rate human.”

Now, as she embarks on her senior year, Swigart loves racing. It reminds her of the beauty of the sport and why she fell in love with it in the first place.

“Swimming is the closest thing I can get to flying,” Swigart said. “When I swim, I’m perfectly suspended between the ground and the air.”

While some can be seen throwing up their nerves before meets, Swigart simply reminds herself that she is capable. She doesn’t need someone else to convince her that she did her best. She doesn’t need someone to calm her down before she dives in the water. Once she starts, there are no nerves. All she feels is the satisfaction of determination and hard work.

“I know how to race,” Swigart said. “I know what I’m doing. I’ve put in the work… I should celebrate myself when I’m on the blocks, when I’m in the water and when I touch the wall because I know that, whatever happens, I put in the work, and I did the best that I could possibly do.”

Swigart has had nearly 15 years of practice in the sport, ever since her parents first taught her in their neighbor’s pool in California. Though she played soccer and did ballet like many growing up, she gravitated toward swimming. It wasn’t until her freshman year of high school that she felt called to let go of the sport due to the stressful environment her previous team created.

Even with the addition of track and water polo, the following year was filled with recuperation and fun. She went from feeling burned out and disappointed to hopeful and rejuvenated.

“Every swimmer who you’ll talk to, every single one, if they’re telling the truth will say that a break is really good,” Swigart said.

Toward the end of that hiatus, her family moved to Spokane. If the team in Bend had met her needs, they might not have relocated, but Swigart’s parents wanted more for her as she went into her sophomore year of high school.

“I didn’t think I was going to swim again, and they encouraged me to do it,” Swigart said. “Now I’m here, and this is, like, I think the biggest gift they’ve given me other than life.”

After a lengthy break from the structure and pressure of racing, Swigart practiced with LC for only seven hours a week. Under the leadership of coach Jennifer Hochwalt, she ended the year with a major accomplishment and the relief of knowing what she is capable of.

Within the first year of her return to the sport, she won the state title for the 200 and 500 free.

During her junior year, Swigart retained her state title for the 500 free but placed third in the 200 free. Even when things don’t go her way, Swigart prides herself on having a good attitude. She knows people are watching, and she knows it’s not the end all, be all.

“Sometimes your bad race is someone else’s good race,” Swigart says.

Swigart’s incredible success led to a flood of emails from several recruiters. Her father helped input all her options into a spreadsheet and color-code them based on interest. Her top three included Washington State University, University of Nevada-Reno and University of New Hampshire.

Though she was excited at the opportunity to remain close to home by attending WSU, their roster filled up quickly. She then went on an official tour to Reno where she recognized how fantastic the team was. Next fall, that is where Swigart will continue to soar.

LC swim is set to defend its GSL title and hopes to bring more individuals to state. The Tigers host meets Oct. 21 and 24 at Eastern Washington University.