Two minutes. That’s about how long it took Emily von Jentzen to finish a 200-yard freestyle swim when she competed at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.
Eighteen hours, 26
minutes. That’s how long it took von Jentzen to swim her way into the sport’s history books.
The 2001 Marysville-Pilchuck graduate is now 27. After high school, she swam for Central Washington University, then went to law school at the University of Montana. Today she lives in Kalispell, Mont. She’s a deputy county attorney for the Flathead County Attorney’s Office.
On July 17, she was back in the water, but not in her familiar pool setting.
Starting in darkness just after 4 a.m., von Jentzen swam the length of Montana’s Flathead Lake. From the town of Somers on the lake’s northern tip, she covered more than 30 miles before finishing at the south end in Polson.
Before von Jentzen’s feat, just two men were on record as having made the Flathead swim. Von Jentzen is believed to be the first woman to complete it.
“I did some research when I decided to do this,” von Jentzen said last week from Kalispell. “I couldn’t find any record of a woman. A bunch have tried and a bunch have failed.”
It wasn’t only for bragging rights that she braved Flathead, which the University of Montana lists as the largest natural freshwater lake in the western United States. She wanted to help someone. “It’s a lot easier to keep going if you’re doing it for a cause,” she said.
At a Missoula store, she saw a flier about Karmyn Flanagan, a 3-year-old Missoula girl who’d been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
“Thirty miles is about 50,000 yards. That’s where the fundraiser idea, 50K for Karmyn, came from,” said von Jentzen, who didn’t meet Karmyn until the Saturday of the swim.
That night, Karmyn and her parents, Tiffany Stebbins and Earl Flanagan, waited long past dark at Polson’s Boettcher Park for von Jentzen to make it to shore. She swam accompanied by two boats, one with a crew carrying food and drink. She wore a sleeveless wetsuit and followed USA Swimming open water rules, meaning she couldn’t touch a boat or another person. She treaded water while on breaks for water or an energy drink, to take Advil or eat half peanut-butter sandwiches.
Flathead Lake, between Glacier National Park and Missoula, is almost 30 miles long and 15 miles wide. It has a maximum depth of nearly 400 feet and a summer surface temperature of about 68 degrees. Two Kalispell men, Paul Stelter and Ron Stevens, have previously made the swim, starting at Bigfork.
“I anticipated a finish time of 4 or 5 in the afternoon, but I got off course. It took a lot longer,” said von Jentzen, who estimates she swam 33 miles or more, hugging the shore and going around Wild Horse Island. “I didn’t get in until almost 11 o’clock. I kept thinking, ‘The little girl’s got a bedtime. Nobody will be at the finish.’ The crew kept saying that people will be there.”
She swam the last hour in full darkness. With her legs like jelly, she needed help getting out of the water and to a place on the grass. There, she gave little Karmyn a heart-shaped rock she found at Somer and taped to her body. “This little rock that went the entire way,” von Jentzen said.
Karmyn’s mother did not reply to an online message last week, but on Facebook, Tiffany Stebbins wrote: “Montana has been our home up until last November, when our daughter was diagnosed with leukemia (ALL), then Washington became home for awhile. Now we are back and Karmyn is doing great with treatment.”
On Friday, von Jentzen didn’t know how much money had been raised, but planned to check the “50K Benefit for Karmyn” account at Missoula Federal Credit Union.
Jaci LeGore Hodgins, of Lake Stevens, is a swim coach at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. Having coached von Jentzen, she wasn’t surprised by the landmark swim.
“She was a superstar,” LeGore Hodgins said. “She swam for me four years, and was an absolute beast. Back in the day, to say someone was a beast was the ultimate compliment. Even as a freshman, she was capable of anything because she was so strong.”
Von Jentzen said being a younger sibling in a family of five children fueled her competitive fire. Her brother Paul Blumenauer, of Granite Falls, watched from shore at the swim’s start and end. “I’ve been choked up ever since,” he said. “Emily is extremely competitive, that was her drive,” said Krissy Davis, one of von Jentzen’s sisters.
A veteran of a dozen triathlon races, von Jentzen said it was tough to stay focused. Her shoulders hurt while swimming the big lake. “I never wanted to quit,” she said.
She’s leery of salt water and sharks, but von Jentzen knows there’s a top goal for open-water swimmers: the English Channel.
“I’m not going to say never,” she said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
How to donate
Emily von Jentzen’s Flathead Lake swim on July 17 was a fundraiser to help pay medical expenses for 3-year-old Karmyn Flanagan. The Missoula, Mont., girl is battling leukemia.
Donations can be made to the “50K Benefit for Karmyn” at Missoula Federal Credit Union, 126 W. Spruce St., Missoula, Mont. 59802.
Von Jentzen wrote about her swim on her website at http://50kforkarmyn.blogspot.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
