ST. JOSEPH, Minn. -- There were times during Morgan Stout's first season at the College of Saint Benedict when the now-senior wondered if she was cut out for collegiate swimming.
 
"I came into swimming much later than a lot of people do," the Des Moines (Iowa) East High School graduate said. "I didn't start until I was in middle school, and it wasn't until late in my high school career that I even realized swimming in college would be a possibility."
 
"Then I got here my first year and it was a struggle," said Stout. "I didn't think I was fast enough and I wondered what the heck I was even doing. I also suffered a herniated disc in my back and I had to overcome that. So I was doubting myself a lot."
 

But Stout never gave up, and gradually the tide started to turn. By her junior season a year ago, she registered top-15 finishes in both the 500 (shaving 17 seconds off her season-best total) and 1,650-yard freestyle at the MIAC Championships, while also swimming a leg of the Bennies' 800 freestyle relay team, which finished sixth overall.
 
This year, the results have been even better. Stout currently ranks fourth in the conference in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:18.04 and is ranked seventh in the 1,650 (18:36.89) and 10^th in the 1,000 (11:17.98).
 
"She's worked really hard, and year after year, she's progressed so much," CSB head coach Mandy Wolvert said. "I've said from Day 1 that she has so much grit. You can't give her anything where she'll say, 'I can't do that.' She will take on any challenge. She races her heart out in every race she enters and that's not a coachable thing.  We're super fortunate to have an athlete who naturally possesses that unstoppable grit."
 
Her grit has been apparent again this season as Stout has dealt with a fractured left foot suffered when she landed wrong on the bottom of the pool at her old high school after jumping feet first into the deep end as part of a training exercise over the holiday break.
 
The injury left her in a walking boot, but she's been able to continue swimming and expects to return to competition when CSB plays host to Carleton in an MIAC dual meet at noon Saturday at SJU's Warner Palaestra.
 
"I can be kind of stubborn and I don't usually let anything hold me back," she said. "When I'm in the pool, I love challenging myself to the point it hurts. That's when I feel like I'm at my strongest. It's probably why I'm drawn to the distance events. I like to feel the burn and slowly chase people down one by one."
 
All in all, it's been an impressive run for someone who only went out for swimming in the first place to follow in her older sister's footsteps.
 
"My sister joined randomly her freshman year (in high school)," Stout recalled. "She was so cool that I always wanted to do what she was doing. So I chose swimming over dance and other things, and once I got into it, I fell in love."
 
"But my junior season was during COVID and that wasn't a very good year," she said. "There were so many restrictions and I didn't feel connected. I kind of fell out of love with the sport for a time. I hung with it, though, and by my senior year I was back in love again."
 
Stout has an uncle, aunt and cousin who reside in St. Joseph, and she visited the community numerous times growing up. Yet CSB never managed to cross her radar.
 
"I didn't even realize there was a college here to be honest," she said. "We'd come up every Fourth of July. But as kids, we weren't allowed to go past the church or The Local Blend (coffee shop). I never made it further than that, so I didn't know about the campus that was just a block away."
 
In fact, it wasn't until an encounter with Wolvert – who also happens to be a Des Moines East graduate – that she began to consider life as a Bennie.
 
"One random day, my high school coach mentioned Mandy was going to be at school and wanted to stop by and say hello," Stout said. "The school had been renovated since she was there, so I gave her a tour and showed her everything that had changed. We started talking, then after I had the chance to look further at the school, it seemed like the place for me. It had my major. I loved the campus and the people. It checked every box."
 
And since arriving on campus, Stout has thrived – both in the pool and out of it. The psychology major and math minor is also the treasurer of the CSB and SJU Body Positivity Club and has worked extensively for CSB residential life.
 
She spent two years as a resident assistant (RA) and is now a community advisor.
 
"I like to stay moving," Stout said. "Sometimes breaks are really hard for me. I don't know what to do when I don't have anything to do."
 
That's certainly not the case at the moment. Stout – who plans to take a gap year after graduation in May before eventually pursuing a master's degree in either counseling or clinical psychology – has her sights set on this year's MIAC meet, which is scheduled for Feb. 11-14, at the University of Minnesota's Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.
 
"I got a taste of what it felt like to score at the MIAC meet last year," she said. "I made it to finals for the first time and that was such a cool experience. I told Mandy now that I had a taste, I wanted more. I want to see what else I'm capable of doing."
 
But no matter what happens the rest of the way, Stout said her college swimming career has already been a success.
 
"I'm so grateful for just having the chance to be a student-athlete all four years I've been in college," she said. "It's such a small population of swimmers who even make it to this point. The fact that I've been able to do it, while getting a valuable education at the same time, is amazing to me. My younger self would never have imagined this could be a possibility."