Olympic Trials Competition Pool Will Go To City Of West Fargo, North Dakota

A community group in West Fargo, North Dakota has purchased the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials competition pool, a Myrtha pool which will be first built into the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska for the 2016 Trials. After the Olympic Trials are over, it will be broken down and moved to West Fargo.

The community group, a grassroots nonprofit organization called UP Aquatics, has been working for six years to bring in a new aquatics facility. To construct the facility, UP Aquatics has partnered with the West Fargo School District, the fastest growing district in North Dakota. The district serves 10,000 students and projects that number will grow to 15,000 over the next few years.

According to Dr. Lance Bergstrom, a local eye surgeon and president and spokesperson for UP Aquatics, the new facility will be used as a practice space for West Fargo’s two high schools (and, in the future, a third, which will soon be added to the district) and the West Fargo Flyers Swim Team. He says that the University of North Dakota diving program has also expressed strong interest in the site. Other teams who will be able to host practices and meets at the pool include the University of North Dakota swimming, Minnesota State University Moorhead, Concordia College, and multiple area club teams. Bergstrom says Moorhead is particularly interested in the facility’s capacity to host NCAA Division II Nationals. UP Aquatics also sees the pool as a potential site for future Arena Pro Swim Series meets or the U.S. Paralympics Swimming Open, which was in Bismark this year.

The aquatic center has already been christened the Hulbert Aquatic Facility, in remembrance of Fargo South High School and Iowa State University swimmer and diver Heidi Ann Hulbert Rowe, who died at age 35 from diabetes complications. Hulbert, who graduated in 1991, is still one of ISU’s top 10 all-time divers.

The Hulbert Aquatic Facility will be 70,000 square feet, with seating for 1,200 and a separate diving well, if the group stays on track with their plan to enhance the 22 million dollar project. It will be world-class, the nicest facility in the Upper Midwest.

The area doesn’t currently have an indoor long course aquatic center, and it sits around a four hour drive from the nearest ones in Bismark and Minneapolis.

Bergstrom thinks that North Dakota’s current lack of facilities has hampered local swimmers’ development.

“This thing is going to lift swimming in our region,” he said. “We’re kind of a late bloomer in terms of swimming, but you’re going to start seeing a lot more North Dakotan swimmers start to qualify for Olympic Trials with these advancements.”

He also is excited about the possibility for West Fargo to begin hosting nationally-significant meets.

“We’re really just like a small Omaha,” he said. “And we’re delighted to use the Myrtha pool. We’re getting the Lamborghini of high school pools, and over time, we’re going to save a lot of money from their filtration systems and other advancements.”

Back in 2014, The Woodlands Swim Team and the Woodlands Masters Swim Team in Texas put down a deposit on this same pool, but, according to Mike Mintenko of Myrtha Pools, their contract with Myrtha included a provision that allowed them to back out of the sale by June 2015. They did, and UP jumped on the opportunity.

“We are extremely excited at Myrtha Pools to be working with UP Aquatics in bringing the legacy of the Trials to the state of North Dakota,” said Mintenko.

The process of relocating the Trials pools is an American swimming tradition. The 2004 pool now calls Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, California its home; the 2008 pool went to Virginia; and the 2012 pool ended up in Boston.

The 2016 warmup pool is still available for purchase from Myrtha.