On Oct. 4, Lewis & Clark’s men’s and women’s swim teams kicked off their seasons with an intrasquad meet. Split into rival factions of Team Black and Team Orange, swimmers raced sprints, relays and medleys, plus several nonregulation race distances, which are meant to get them out of their comfort zones.
The meet was also dedicated to raising awareness about the Morgan’s Message foundation, which works to break the stigma surrounding athletes’ mental health. Morgan’s Message is named in honor of Morgan Rodgers, a Division I lacrosse player at Duke University who died by suicide in July 2019.
Volunteers at the meet wore T-shirts printed with the message “HUMAN > ATHLETE” and handed out wristbands with the name of the organization. During a break in the competition, swimmers and spectators took a collective moment of silence in honor of Rodgers.
Sage Swegle ’27, a Morgan’s Message ambassador who competes on LC’s lacrosse team, said that the organization’s message is, “to make athletes feel seen and like they’re able to speak up about their mental health.”
Swegle brought Morgan’s Message to the women’s lacrosse team after being involved with the organization in high school, where one of her lacrosse coaches was a former teammate of Rodgers.
College athletes face significant stress: On top of the busy schedule that comes with academic obligations, daily practices and traveling for competitions, they often hold themselves to extremely high performance standards and can experience performance anxiety in high-stakes moments. Despite this, there is commonly a stigma in college athletic circles against mental health self-advocacy, which prevents student-athletes from getting the help they need.
“They try to keep it to themselves, which makes it worse,” Swegle said.
Dahlia Linkow ’27, an LC swimmer and Morgan’s Message ambassador, expressed hopes for Morgan’s Message to expand into more athletic programs at the college.
“I think having a healthy mind leads to a healthy body, which leads to better performance and mental health is at the root of it,” Linkow said.
Linkow also emphasized that mental health affects athletes’ academic studies and interpersonal relationships, in addition to competitive performance, saying that self-advocacy helps them to be “the best athletes, individuals and friends that they can be.”
LC athletes receive excellent physical care from trainers, who are regularly available for walk-in treatment of a myriad of injuries and guidance on injury-prevention strategies. However, mental health assistance is less prominent, and can be delayed, with limited appointments available in the Counseling Center. LC also has a Mental Health Validation Program (MVP), founded in 2024 by Assistant Athletic Trainer Gina Parisi, which promotes a similar message of “humans first, athletes second.” If you want to learn more about MVP, their Instagram is @mvp.lc, where they promote events on campus and raise awareness.
Morgan’s Message at LC is planning monthly events such as presentations and keychain-making workshops, where athletes and other students can de-stress while having open conversations and making an accessory to display their empathy and allyship to others.
“We’re trying to help provide more mental resources, because the physical ones are already great,” Swegle said.
Women’s lacrosse will also be dedicating a game in the spring to the Morgan’s Message mission.
The intrasquad swim meet served as an opportunity for LC swimmers to set baseline times for the season and to build team camaraderie. Posters lined the pool walls, and swimmers on the sidelines shouted encouragement at their teammates through enormous orange bullhorns. Toward the end, the T-shirt relay was held, in which teammates swam laps while wearing an oversize cotton T-shirt, which was then transferred inside out onto the next racer by an impromptu pit crew.
After all of the events were finished, Head Coach Caitlin DeNise ascended the diving board to announce the results. DeNise was a former Division I swimmer and won the Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year award at last year’s NWC Conference Championships, an accolade that freestyle sprinter Aidan Beatty ’27 described as “squarely earned.”
Though the competition was stiff, Team Black prevailed, triumphing with 280 points over Team Orange’s 262. After DeNise announced the scores, swimmers did a team cheer, shouted thanks to spectators and lined up to exchange high fives before jumping back into the pool for some extra training laps.
Later in the season, LC Swim will be traveling to Southern California for their midseason meet in November, before training in Encinitas over winter break and preparing for NWC Championships in Federal Way, Washington in February. Morgan’s Message at LC is on Instagram @lcpios.mm, where they have a Linktree to sign up for to receive information about upcoming events.
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