The Breck Girls Swim and Dive team is by far one of Breck’s most successful athletic programs. But unlike other athletes at Breck, these girls do it almost completely unnoticed.
This year, the team sealed its 13th straight Section 2A victory. It was also their 19th year beating the Blake Bears, an astounding record considering that no current students in the Breck Upper School were alive when the streak started. The team placed 9th at the MSHSL State Tournament and featured eight All-State swimmers and an 8th grade diver who placed the highest a Breck diver has at state in the last five years. Their coach – Brian Wright – was named the Section 2A Swimming Coach of the Year.
Most Breck students wouldn’t have known much, if any, of that information, and most have probably never even seen the Breck pool. But given the success of the swimming program here, and the kind spirit of its swimmers and divers, this reality – one where there is so little support for the sport – is simply not good enough. So, in an effort to give the Bugle’s readers an inside look into Breck’s Swim and Dive team, I interviewed five of its most successful, most passionate senior swimmers.
Greta Wilson, Sadie Plut, Annie Chi, Olivia Liu, and Milly Rosenberg (SP Kabat was unavailable) – all in the Breck Class of 2026 and captains of the 2025 swim team – sat down with me to share their swimming experience and to call on their Breck classmates to appreciate the program’s success, even just a little more.
It became clear to me right away that – no matter how little recognition they get – the swim and dive program is held dear in these seniors’ hearts. Sadie categorized the team as a family, and Annie shared that her teammates hold each other to the highest standards – out of love. Olivia opened up about her experience as an exchange student coming to Breck all the way from China, and feeling immediately welcomed by the swim team, which helped her “adapt to life here at Breck.”
Another theme that permeated many of these seniors’ words was the sheer effort that swimmers and divers put into their sport. Greta shared that the team practices six days a week, for four months. Their practices often last over two and a half hours, and it’s straight conditioning the entire time. She added, “Objectively, we’re one of the hardest working teams at Breck.” Annie expanded on this, telling me that the amount of hours Breck swimmers put into the pool is the reason the team has been so successful for so long. “We put in the hours and then we see the results,” she said.
When I asked about the challenges these seniors faced – whether as swimmers, leaders, or student athletes – they all opened up with vulnerability. Sadie told me that it can be hard to stay so motivated for so long, especially as practice and school get more difficult. As captains, she said, “it was really important for us to stay positive and keep everyone going.” Milly added on to this, sharing that “there’s a time in every season when everyone just starts to get in this mood.” She, like Sadie, emphasized the importance of positivity – especially from the captains – saying, “even small things, like dancing behind the block, can really help with morale.” Greta opened up about self-doubt within the team, sharing that “it’s difficult to have dignity and pride in your sport when there are people that are telling you that nobody values your work and what you’re trying to do, or that nobody cares at all.” She added that the captains do their best to empower their teammates and to get fans to come to their meets, but it was clear to me that this challenge – self-doubt fueled by limited community support – has been, and continues to be, a difficult one to overcome.
One way that the Breck Girls Swim and Dive team does navigate hard moments is with their incredible array of team traditions. From pasta dinners; to the post-meet “Mustanger” – when a swimmer who worked really hard, dropped a lot of time in their event, or was really supportive of their teammates has to prance around the pool on a wooden horse; to their swimming-themed take on Secret Santa: “Secret Swimmer;” to their Halloween ugly swimsuit contest and dance competition; to pumpkin relay races; to listening to their coach read them The Little Engine That Could before sections; the traditions on this team are unforgettable. And with the “Last Dive” for seniors – when, on the last day of practice, the seniors dive into the pool and the lights get turned off while they swim a final 25 meters – I think it’s fair to say that these are some of the most iconic athletic traditions at Breck.
Lastly, I asked the seniors about what they wished their Breck classmates knew about Breck Swim and Dive and its successes. Effort and work ethic came up again, when Sadie shared that many classmates do notice the team’s success, but fail to attribute that success to hard work: “People need to recognize how hard we work in that pool. The reason we’ve won sections all these years is because we work so hard,” she said. Greta added on, sharing that most Breck students don’t understand the reality of the conditions in which the Swim and Dive team works. “We have one really small locker room. The two toilets often break. The drain is broken. For almost 40 kids, we have two showers. The air quality in the pool is really poor to the point where a lot of our team has gotten exercise-induced asthma.” Olivia added more, saying, “Our parkas are always reused, and they are really, really old. No one really shows up to our meets, because they don’t really know what swimming is.” Milly shared that the pool is really old, and the stands are really tight. For a fan, she said, “It’s not somewhere you really want to be.” Annie talked about the lack of support for Girls Swim and Dive in the wider Breck community, explaining how disappointing it is to see sports like hockey or basketball receive far more recognition in places like Chapel – even though the teams’ athletic achievements are equal, and swimming’s are often more impressive.
But despite these physical and social conditions – conditions that seem to be begging the Breck Girls Swim and Dive team to fail, to give up, to stop working so hard – the team has done nothing but thrive, and they have done so with a smile on each of their faces.
“We have a lot of fun,” said Greta. Annie and Olivia shared the happy emotions that came with senior night, and the success of this year’s fan relay event that brought out one of Breck’s first student sections to a swim meet. Sadie shouted out Jenkins and Mr. B, calling them “superfans, who have been at every single meet, without fail.” The seniors celebrated these small successes and expressed hope that, in the coming years, the team’s larger victories — the ones that happen in the pool — will begin to receive the recognition they deserve.
