Champions

I’m almost finished writing my 2023 book list. Any day now! I might even publish it tomorrow. Maybe Wednesday. I’m this close. 

It’s Monday, the day after the Super Bowl. Taylor Swift, the inevitable Chiefs’ win, so-so commercials, and Usher on roller skates. I watched with friends, so the company was the best thing. But now we’re gearing up for the really important sporting event. This weekend, Marymount Swimming will try to defend its men’s and women’s titles at the NCAA Division III Atlantic East Conference Championship. A four-day college swimming extravaganza is about 100 times more fun than a six-hour football game. We can’t wait. 

*****

The psych sheet came out yesterday, and it’s just as we expected - our son is expected to do well, but he’s not seeded first in anything. This is a good thing - top seed in a championship meet is a lot of pressure. 

*****

And I finally finished my 2023 book list, a few days earlier than last year. It’s a nice feeling - freeing. Freedom from what, I don’t know, because no one pays me to write incompetent book reviews of books published years ago, and no one is banging on my door demanding my next review, and any deadline associated with this thing (the deadline was President’s Day FYI) is completely self-imposed, but self-imposed deadlines are the most stringent, are they not? I am my own harshest taskmaster. I should quit before I fire myself. 

With the books out of the way, all I need to do now is overpack for a three-night road trip, and then arrive at my hotel and realize that I brought all the wrong things. Well, that is what I usually do but I’m not doing it this time. I know exactly what we’ll be doing all day each day, and I know exactly what clothes to bring. It’ll be fine. It’s a swim meet, for crying out loud. 

*****

It’s Thursday morning now. I’m working for part of the day today, and then we’ll get on the road for the not-too-long but not-too-short drive to St. Mary’s City. It’s a little colder than I’d like but it’s clear and bright and a perfect day for a road trip. Our original plan was to travel on Friday, skipping the Thursday night and Friday morning sessions. Thursday night, we assumed, would be distance events, and the morning sessions are all prelims. But it turns out that Thursday night is a relay session and we are all about relays. So I’m taking a vacation day on Friday and we’re making this a three-night trip. I’m packed now. Yes, I’m packing a bunch of stuff that I probably won’t need but I don’t care. I’d rather have it and not need it than the reverse, and since this is a road trip and I don’t need to worry about airline luggage rules, I’m going to just bring everything and not stress about it. I wish I could travel without overpacking but packing light is just a habit, not a virtue. And now I can change my clothes if I want to. 

*****

It's 9:30 on Friday morning and ordinarily, I would be at my desk at home, writing a newsletter or making slides for a presentation or something. But it's day 2 of the AEC championship, so I'm in the stands at the St. Mary's College of Maryland pool, waiting for warm-ups to end, and the morning prelim session to begin. The only thing better than a swim meet is a multi day swim meet, and the only thing better than a multi day swim meet is a multi day swim meet whose morning prelim sessions begin at 10. 

Last night's relay session was a blast. The boys medley took second place in a close and exciting race and even though they didn't win, they held their second place seeding and broke the team record. Not bad for two sophomores and two freshmen. If they stick together they will be hard to beat next year. 

And it was kind of a perfect day. A beautiful drive, fast swimming and close finishes, a bomb playlist, a dinner that I didn't have to cook and then an evening of chill in a basic but clean hotel room. It was a good time. It was a whole vibe. 

*****

It's 7:30 on Saturday morning, my favorite time when I'm staying in a hotel. My husband is still asleep and I'm sitting with wet hair and hotel room coffee enjoying the quiet in the room and the traffic noise outside. Soon enough it'll be time to get in gear but there's no rush. The morning prelim session doesn't start until 10. 

The boys had a very good day yesterday. They didn't win every event or even close but what they did do was to swim fast enough in the prelims that the finals were stacked with Saints and when you finish in 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the finals, the points add up. They're ahead by a solid margin today but it's not over. There's still two whole days of competition. 

We went to Solomon's Island yesterday during the break between the prelims and finals. I had never been there even though it's a noted Maryland point of interest. That is always the way, isn't it? You miss all the interesting places that are right in your own backyard. 

The weather was just right for an outdoor afternoon. Clear and bright, February chilly but not cold, breezy but not windy - just right. We walked along the waterfront and looked at boats and had lunch in a dockside seafood restaurant and visited a local shop owned by an elderly couple who noticed my husband's Marymount swimming hoodie and told us all about their own son, now in his 50s, who was also a high school and college swimmer. That's Maryland. Any room containing Maryland parents will include at least one person who will tell you all about their child's swimming career. These are my people.

It was supposed to snow overnight, and I think it did at home, but Southern Maryland just got some rain. The morning started cloudy and gray and now the clouds are blowing away, yielding to the sunshine. We just pulled into the parking lot at MPOARC. It's time to go. It's time for another great day of swimming. 

*****

It's Sunday morning now, the fourth and final day of AEC Championships, and I'm a little sad to see it end. It's been the most fun weekend. My son finished third in the 100 Breaststroke final last night, and then his 400 medley relay swam a conference record time, but St. Mary's 400 medley was a little faster. And that's fine because they still came away with silver medals and a program record for the event. Two silvers and a bronze in his first conference championship is not too shabby. He has one more race today. More importantly, the Marymount boys are in a very good position this morning, points wise. That's all I'll say about that. 

The campus of St Mary's College of Maryland is really beautiful. Most of the buildings are red brick with slate roofs, connected by diagonal brick walkways across grassy quadrangles, some with pergolas over the entrances and some covered with new ivy. The campus is situated on the Chesapeake Bay, surrounded by pine forests, and studded with tiny nooks of natural beauty. The architecture is reminiscent of classic American Ivy League college campuses but more modern and welcoming and democratic. There's no mystique, no air of privilege or exclusion. It's just a beautiful place. 

But it's cold here, too. We're staying in Lexington Park, ten minutes away, and it's always so much colder here because of the wind from the bay. It's relentless, that wind. 

*****

A college championship swim meet lasts for four or five days and if you’re lucky enough to be able to attend for the entire meet, then you’re going to make some new friends. It’s like that one wedding where you became instant friends with everyone, and maybe you don’t see them again or keep in touch with them regularly, but you think of them fondly. The connection remains. We have been making friends with Marymount parents throughout the year because we are within two hours’ driving distance of most of the meet venues. But we have swimmers from Florida, North and South Carolina, Minnesota, New York, Washington State - all over. And so some of the parents at Conferences were seeing their first Marymount meet of the season, and meeting other parents for the first time. We ran into some of them in our hotel, easily identifiable in the coffee line with their bright blue Marymount shirts and hoodies. Others we met in the natatorium, or in local restaurants for lunch or dinner. We also made friends with rival team family members, including a lovely Cabrini grandmother whose senior granddaughter was swimming in her last-ever meet. She told us that she was rooting for Marymount, except in her granddaughter’s events, since Cabrini had no chance to win the meet. 

*****

Disappointment is part and parcel of every athlete’s life, and my son had a hard reminder of that fact thanks to a rough prelim in the 200 breaststroke. He swam a great time, but two others who were seeded to finish behind him swam their best ever times, leaving him in fifth place rather than third. He was crushed. But disappointment is a set-up for a comeback and he came back strong in the final. All five of the top qualifiers swam best-ever times again, and my son dropped enough from his previous personal best to finish back in the top three. His final medal count was two silvers and two bronzes. 

And that was great, but it wasn't the best thing. The best thing is that both the boys and the girls finished first to win the entire meet, and we got to watch the celebration, 40 happy swimmers crowding onto the podium, posing with their medals and their brand-new t-shirts and hats. The celebration almost went sideways when one of the boys who ambushed the head coach with a Gatorade cooler full of ice water slipped on the ice and banged his head on the way down, but he’s fine, thankfully. Soaked from the ice water bath, the head coach jumped into the pool, followed by the assistant coaches, and followed by the rest of the team. We parents stayed on the deck, taking photos and hugging and saying our goodbyes. 

*****

Last year, the Rockville High School boys’ swim team won the Maryland Public Secondary School Class 3A state championship. Four of the eight boys who represented Rockville in the state meet were seniors, and all four seniors went on to swim in college. Three of the four colleges (Marymount, Catholic University, and Stevens Institute) won their conference championships last week, and the fourth (Indiana, the only D1 of the four) will swim in the Big Ten conference championship next week. They could win, making it four for four. I’m strangely invested in this now, and I’m very much hoping that at least some of the meet will be broadcast on TV in between basketball games. I don’t care about March Madness but I’m an Indiana fan  for now, until after the Big Ten men’s swimming championship is over. Swim fast, Hoosiers. Swim fast.