Boys' Swim Teams Pull Together to Fight Cancer at Swim for the Cure

While they were competitors in the pool Thursday, the Waukee and Southeast Polk boys' swim team also had a common foe: cancer.

Waukee hosted Swim for the Cure in connection with the home swim meet and both schools helped raise money to fight cancer. Swimmers from both schools wore pink swim caps or special black swim caps with a pink design that had Waukee and Southeast Polk written in pink, with the breast cancer ribbon and the date below it on both sides.

Throughout the course of the first portion of the meet, fans could buy small, yellow rubber ducks with numbers on the bottom. Each duck cost one dollar and all the proceeds went toward cancer research.

Tony Oberman, of Waukee, said, “I bought five ducks, just a small donation that goes to a great cause.”

During the first intermission, a pink, blowup cooler was set three lanes deep in the pool away from the audience and everyone had a chance to throw their ducks into the cooler. The people who made their ducks were able to win either a $50 gift card to Action Accents or a $25 gift card to Jethro's BBQ n' Jambalaya.

Teresa Trible estimated that nearly 300 ducks were sold and Waukee head swim coach Dan Briggs said fans just donated money and didn’t get any ducks.

Steve Utsler, father of freshman Waukee swimmer Max Utsler, bought five ducks; Utsler also won the 100-yard breaststroke.

Steve said, “I bought five ducks, the money goes to a good cause, so why not?”

Fans throughout the bleachers were decked out in all colors, each color represented a different type of cancer that they had overcome or are currently battling. Each person attending the meet was given a pink sheet that listed each color and what type of cancer each color stood for while also listing the survivors of former or current Southeast Polk and Waukee students, as well as the lives that were taken by this disease.

Members of the Southeast Polk swim team also wore sweatshirts with the words Team Kelsey on the back, remembering a girl who passed away a few months ago to a brain tumor. Team Kelsey trended on Twitter throughout the Des Moines when this tragedy happened.