Bruce Vagt adds potential to an already strong swim team

Sylvie Cao, Managing Editor

Typically, coaches have an idea of their team’s skills, either because players are returning or because they have had a conversation with incoming players before tryouts. This was not the case for Kris Daughters, coach of the boys swim and dive team, who underestimated a new swimmer this year: junior Bruce Vagt.

“Swimmers are divided into lanes based on ability,” said Daughters. “I had Bruce swim in lane six on the first day, where a lot of the beginner level swimmers are. It wasn’t until a little bit later that I realized he was much faster than he let on, and I pulled him out to have a conversation with him about his experience.”
It turns out, Vagt had swam for years on a club swim team before this year. He began swimming when he was nine years old and competed on various teams until he was a freshman in high school.
“I quit my first swim team when I was 11 years old when the head coach left. Afterwards, some of the swimmers and I began to carpool to Bellingham to swim for a club there, which meant we had to drive for around an hour to and from each practice,” Vagt said.

Despite the long commute, it was worth to Vagt in swim on such a good team.
He specializes in mid-distance and at his fastest, he swam the 100 freestyle in around 50 seconds, which is a very competitive time that will qualify him for state.
“I didn’t join the team last year because I didn’t think I could handle the commitment of swim along with all my other extracurriculars. But my goal for this season is to just get back to my times when I was swimming club and try to contribute as much as I can to the team,” said Vagt.
With a strong returning team with experience at post-season and the addition of a swimmer of Vagt’s caliber, the season is looking bright for the boys swim team.