Lindsay Taggart Lake City Year: Junior Sport: Swimming

Two weeks. That’s how long Lindsay Taggart’s mother expected her eldest daughter to stay interested in swimming.

After all, as a 10-year-old she had quit gymnastics and dance after two weeks in each.

“I loved it for two weeks; my mom was sure I could not stick with (swimming),” Taggart said with a broad smile.

Six years later, Taggart is more committed than ever to swimming. “When swim team first started, it was tiny, only about five people,” she explained, adding that there is a 60-member limit now on her club team.

But the age-division swim team meets don’t compare to the thrill of high school competition. “State is such an adrenaline thing, the team concept is an amazing thing,” Taggart said. “The team gets me going so much. I love that part of it.”

Another reason is the Timberwolves’ chance to win a state championship for the second-year school. “(Swimming is) finally getting recognition in our school,” the junior class president said. “We’re finally getting respect.”

Lake City swept the North Idaho district meet last weekend in Moscow. Fourteen T-Wolves advance to the Nov. 11 state meet in Idaho Falls where both the LC girls and boys will be title contenders.

Taggart is one of three upperclassmen on the LC girls team. At district, she won the 200 individual medley by more than 5 seconds (2:32.40) and finished second in her specialty, the 100 butterfly, by a touch to her sister, Megan, a freshman (1:06.86 to 1:07:40). Both swam on the first-place 200 freestyle relay.

Lindsay was second at state in 1994 in the butterfly race. “She has one of the prettiest butterflies I’ve ever seen in my life,” LC coach Carolyn MaGee said. “She has a beautiful stroke.”

Taggart prefers close races, especially like the one with her sister. “I swallowed water at the flags, my coach saw it,” Lindsay explained. “I had to take two breaths (of air).

”(Megan) has a better body for swimming than I do, and she’s more dedicated. In high school swimming I can make it seem like I’m pretty good, but I don’t have the body to go very far.”

Taggart, however, is ahead of where she was last year as the T-Wolves head into their state meet taper. And the two sisters won’t meet at state in the butterfly race, but rather the 200 IM.

”(Lindsay) could have beaten Megan and she knew it when she finished the race on Saturday,” MaGee said. “It ended up being helpful to her.

“Lindsay undersells herself,” MaGee continued. “She probably has more potential than she’s willing to give herself credit for, but she’s done well ever since she was 12. You couldn’t pick a better team player, and that’s what state is all about.”

Taggart relished the idea of lowering the state record in the 200 free relay, a mark she helped set as a Coeur d’Alene freshman in 1993.

Those same T-Wolves relay members, including the Taggarts, Brooke Sprague and Steffani Darakjy, are within a tenth of a second of the state 200 medley record.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo