The Chinook Lions and Harlem Swim Teams have gotten off to a stellar start in the Montana Federation of Swimmers Summer Season. Both teams took the weekend off to celebrate Independence Day with friends and family and will return to action this coming weekend with a meet in Malta.

The teams headed into the holiday break by working hard on fine tuning elements of their individual strokes and will get back in the pool this Tuesday as they head into the home stretch of the season.

Following this weekends meet in Malta the local swim teams will have regular season meets in Glasgow, July 16-17 and Fort Benton/Scobey July 23-24.

The Montana Federation of Swimmers Eastern Divisional will take place in Plentywood, July 30-31 with the top 12 swimmers in each event advancing to the State Swim Meet. This year's State Swim Meet will be held in Lewistown, August 6-7.

Chinook Lions Head Coach Benton Elliot is happy with where his swimmers are at right now, but knows there is still plenty of work to be done, "The kids are coming along very well. We're to the point where some days I feel like we're ready for Divisional and other days it feels like we are back to square one. But with four weeks left until Divisional I'm fully confident we will be ready."

Coach Elliot is confident in his teams preparation, "Practices have been going well. Some practices it feels like we get way better and others it feels like we just get a little better. The focus now is to just condition the kids, we've used most of the first month to work on technique and now it's time to get into swimming shape."

Coach Elliot selected two swimmers to be his 'Swimmers of the Week, Sylvi Harwood and Dentin DePriest.

"Sylvi Harwood is a Eight and under girl. She is five year old swimming like a six year old. Her focus for that young is incredible," said Elliot. "We were working on dives and as I was telling the other kids to swim back and get ready to dive again I look over and I see her already in diving position and ready to go. As soon as we finish with something she normally asks right away 'what's next'.

Elliot sees improvement every day, "Every time she hops in the pool at the meet she is cutting time, and every practice I can see that she gets so much better. At the meet in Chester she swam the 25 freestyle, 50 freestyle, and 25 backstroke. She placed top six in all her events and was the youngest girl to qualify for the second day in each of her events.

Coach Elliot has plenty of positives to say regarding his senior swimmer, "Dentin DePriest is a Senior Boy who is at the bottom of his age group, swimming as a 15 year old. Dentin is always the person to do the drills correctly and pay attention to details. He shows up to practice ready and on time."

Elliot adds, "Dentin is often the first to finish during sprints and conditioning. He doesn't say too much but when he does it means something, and people listen. After the first meet in Harlem I talked Dentin out of the 50 free and into the 400 free because I thought he could place higher in the 400 free." Elliot knew the change would be a challenge, "For those of you that don't know the 400 free is a huge commitment and energy draining race compared to the 50 free. Dentin knew that but without much hesitation he let me put him into the 400. Lots of kids would never even consider that but his attitude is fantastic."

Above left: Chinook Lions swimmer Cynnloch Gibson (9-10) was selected Coach Elliot's choice last week but his picture was unavailable at press time. This weeks 'Swimmers of the week are (L-R) Chinook Lions Sylvi Harwood (8 & Under) and Denton DePriest (15-19) along with Harlem Swim teams Reggie Doney (8 & Under) and Precious Stiffarm (11-12). Coach Elliot and Coach Rasmussen are extremely proud of the hard work these kids put forth every time the dive in the pool. In practice or at a meet with everything on the line these individuals give their best effort.

Harlem Swim Team Head Coach Andrew Rasmussen has selected Precious Stiffarm and Reggie Doney as his Swimmers of the Week. "They both swim really hard. I've been watching both of them and they both listen very well at practice. My favorite part about what they do is they put 100% effort out for every lap or rep I ask them to do." Stiffarm competes in the Junior Girls (11-12) Division while Reggie swims in the Bantam Girls (8 & Under) Division.