Swimmer reaches milestone

The Daily Inter Lake

After a long day in the water Saturday, Kalispell swimmer Emily von Jentzen became the third person — and first woman — to swim the length of Flathead Lake.

Von Jentzen reached the shore of Boettcher Park in Polson at 10:49 p.m. Saturday after swimming for 18 hours, 26 minutes hours to cover 28 miles.

A crowd of about 50 people, including an ill Missoula girl to whom the swim was dedicated, greeted von Jentzen in Polson.

She started her lake quest at 4:23 a.m. Saturday in Somers.

Von Jentzen is a 27-year-old triathlete and recently hired Flathead County deputy attorney.

In conquering Flathead Lake, she joins elite company.

Kalispell resident Paul Stelter was the first man to swim the length of the lake.

He completed it in 14 hours in 1988. In 2005, Ron Stevens, another Kalispell resident and master swimmer, did it in 12 hours, 25 minutes.

Both men swam from Polson to Bigfork, but von Jentzen chose a slightly longer route, starting in Somers Bay and finishing at Boettcher Park near the Polson golf course.

The longtime swimmer has been blogging about her preparation to conquer the length of Flathead Lake.

In her last few days of blog posts before Saturday’s swim, von Jentzen dedicated each mile of the Flathead Lake route to someone different.

Mile 13, for example, was dedicated to “Amanda, my sister, supporter and friend.”

Mile 23 was dedicated to “Katie Schulz — my publicist, puppy sitter and possibly my biggest supporter in Kalispell, I could NOT have done this without you.”

A final dedication was for 3-year-old Missoula tot Karmyn Flanagan, for whom von Jentzen was doing the swim as a fundraiser. Flanagan has acute lymphoblastic leukemia. 

The blog post reads: “Karmyn — mile 30 and every mile before as well as every training mile also goes to Karmyn, may you have a full recovery from this disease and then set out to achieve every dream you can imagine!”

Karmyn and her parents, Earl Flanagan and Tiffany Stebbins, were waiting Saturday night on the shore in Polson to greet von Jentzen at the end of her grueling swim. 

“It’s surprising for someone to go all out for someone they’ve never even met before,” Stebbins said while waiting for von Jentzen to complete her swim.

When von Jentzen saw a flier posted at the Missoula Staples store about Karmyn, it occurred to von Jentzen that her swimming expedition could be used as a fundraiser for the girl.

“It’s about doing something bigger than yourself,” she said in an earlier interview with the Daily Inter Lake.

While von Jentzen hadn’t met the young girl before Saturday, she was touched by the story and felt compelled to help.

Readers can learn more about von Jentzen’s Flathead Lake swim on her blog: http://50kforkarmyn.blogspot.com.

Donations for Flanagan may be sent to von Jentzen’s Missoula post-office box: P.O. 3601, Missoula MT 59803.

Von Jentzen swam under USA Open Water rules that stipulate a swimmer can’t touch any support boat, flotation device or other swimmers.

Also waiting in Polson was von Jentzen’s mother, who said, “If she says she’s going to do something, she’ll do it,” her mother said.

Von Jentzen is no stranger to distance swimming and endurance events.

Two years ago she completed a 24-hour triathlon in Aurora, Colo., stopping for just two 15-minute breaks, one to wolf down a Dairy Queen Blizzard and another to tend to blisters on her feet.

Motivated to be a swimmer at age 9 in Lake Stevens, Wash., “because it was the only sport I could beat my sister at,” von Jentzen swam her way through high school with top honors in swimming and swam at regional competitions in California and Hawaii for the Pacific Northwest Swim Team.

She earned a swimming scholarship to Central Washington University, where she remembers a tough swim coach putting the team through a 12-hour practice, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., swimming some 36,000 yards with 10-minute breaks on the hour.

At the height of her swimming career, the university cut its swim team, so she and her teammates started their own Central Washington Swim Team to allow them to keep on competing.

About the same time, von Jentzen began competing in triathlons — swimming, bicycling and running in a single competition.

When she started law school in Missoula in 2006, she joined the UM Triathlon Team. Von Jentzen competed through 2008 and served as president and swim coach of the team during the 2007-08 school year.

Then she delved into coaching adult swimming at the Missoula YMCA. She’s a certified coach for both the USA Triathlon and USA Swimming programs.