Durkin exceeds her expectations to book states swims
PHILADELPHIA — Keeley Durkin’s smile Sunday morning seemed far away from the pain and panic.
A month and a half before the District 1 Swimming and Diving Championships, the Sun Valley junior suffered a rib injury. Try as she might in retrospect to diminish its impact, the core muscle injury was the kind that derails seasons, one where she had to spend three weeks completely out of the water.
“Breathing or coughing or laughing, everything hurt,” Durkin said, much less the reach and torso torque involved in freestyle. The only remedy, in addition to regular physical therapy visits was rest.
Lack of training is devastating for swimmers; to a distance specialist like Durkin, it can be the death knell of a season. So with a diminished workout load entering districts and seed times hardly representative of her best swims, Durkin in the last month went from unsure if she’d get to districts to uncertain what the meet might bring.
The answer: An out-of-this-world success.
Durkin finished eighth in the 200 freestyle in Day 1 Saturday and seventh in Sunday’s 500 free at La Salle University’s Kirk Natatorium, with times that look likely to send her to states. If that checks out, she’d be the first Sun Valley female swimmer to qualify for states since 1988, per coach Kate Doroshenko.
“It was kind of rough mentally and physically, trying to recover and get back because I couldn’t train,” Durkin said. “So when I started to come back, it hurt and it was closer to districts, so I was kind of freaking out a little bit, but I’m just proud that I’m back mentally and obviously physically.”
Those results exceeded the expectations for districts, which were …
“Zero. There was zero expectations,” she said. “I wanted to go close to my best times, and I surpassed my best times, by a lot.”
The races unfolded in a way befitting Durkin’s journey. Saturday, she was last in her heat, the fifth of seven, at the midway point of the 200 free, holding back to evaluate how much strength she had. She roared back to win that heat, dropping four seconds from her seed to a time of 1:53.38.
In Sunday’s 500, she was drawn into the third heat of seven, one usually populated by swimmers happy just to be at districts rather than serious state contenders. With the early heat, Durkin knew she’d have to generate her own momentum with no one to chase.
The result was again a heat win, by more than nine seconds, in 5:04.91, more than two seconds quicker than her personal-best outside of high school.
“I knew I was going to be racing myself because I saw the times and my best time was about 10 seconds lower than what my seed time was, so I knew that from the beginning,” Durkin said. “And when you see those girls, it motivates you even more to get farther and farther away.”
The PIAA this year changed its qualification standards to eliminate automatic qualifiers for all but District champs and pared down which districts get auto berths. Instead of 16 auto berths, there’s now eight, with 26 spots determined by time (up from 16), which should open an extra spot or two.
Per the performance list published on the PIAA’s site, Durkin is ninth fastest qualifier, easily into states. Her 500 time also lands ninth statewide.
Durkin credits her support system of family and coaches with guiding her through the challenges, and with them in attendance, districts was a special moment. Getting to states would be another.
“It would mean everything,” she said. “This is what I train for every day at practice. I put everything into it, and this is my goal since freshman year. And this is the year I didn’t think I was going to make it, so it means everything.”
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When Catherine Weaverling jumped in the pool for the third leg of Garnet Valley’s 400 free relay, the Jags were fifth in the final heat. When anchor Noelle DiClemente leapt in, Garnet stood fourth. And when DiClemente touched the wall, Garnet Valley had risen to third in its heat and fourth overall in 3:31.12.
“We kind of are like the dream team,” Weaverling said. “We get each other going, we pump each other up, like it’s go time. Yeah, we have fun. We try to just beat the other people.”
The Garnet Valley relay program has been tons of fun in recent years. Districts brings two more states berths, for the 200 and 400 free relay.
DiClemente, Weaverling and Anastasia Erley are on both squads, with Alexa Hipp in the 200 and Amy Townend in the 400. The 200 free squad finished sixth Saturday in 1:37.05, the seventh-fastest time qualifier for states. Sunday’s 400 free will be the fifth time qualifier.
“We try to jam out, pump up the music, get all the jitters out and get excited for the relays,” Weaverling said.
The last two swimmers jammed out on their swims Saturday, with DiClemente third in the 50 free (23.63 seconds) and Weaverling second in the 100 fly (55.70), both easily in states.
Sunday, DiClemente finished 12th in the 100 free in 52.73. She should still get to states, tied for 20th, per PIAA performance lists. Weaverling finished seventh in a very fast 100 backstroke in 57.17 seconds. That’s the ninth-fastest at large in states.
• • •
The snow-inspired oddity of the districts delay gives the District 1 contingent a carrot to aim for, with results across the state already in. It means swimmers competing in Day 2 already know if they’ve made states in their Day 1 events.
On the girls side, two Strath Haven swimmers are unofficially set to join Durkin in the 200 free. Sydney Bergstrom is the 11th-place time qualifier, while Mia Yancey, who finished 16th at districts, is the 24th and final time qualifier at 1:55.20. Haverford’s Grace Myers is the first alternate by .08. Bergstrom finished fifth in the 500 Sunday, a time that gets her the fourth time qualifier spot to states.
Claire Walsh, sixth in the 50 and 100 free, easily makes the states field. She’s the 11th time qualifier in the 50 and eighth in the 100.
Casey Cullen had the sixth-fastest time in the 100 fly; the Radnor freshman also could sneak into the 500 free, tentatively 22nd for 24 time qualifiers. Cullen finished 14th Sunday in 5:09.76. Radnor’s 200 free relay also grabbed the 22nd of 24 time spots (states will feature the top 32 relays instead of 24).
