PIAA Swimming: Walsh’s state memories are about more than medals
LEWISBURG — Three years ago, Claire Walsh was the sensation of the state meet.
The Penncrest freshman marauded through her swims at Bucknell with a level of dominance rookies rarely display, particularly in the sprint events, where veteran savvy and strength reign. In her wake, she left a slew of medals, a pair of Delaware County records and the promise of so much more.
As she departed states for the final time Saturday, however, Walsh wanted just one memento of the weekend.
“It’s been such a life journey. I’ve been so many things in the past four years,” Walsh said. “I just texted my mom (that) the place to me didn’t matter, the time to me didn’t matter tonight. I was just so proud to have finished my high school swimming career and to finish with a smile on my face.”
Walsh’s smile after the 100 freestyle at the PIAA Class 3A Championships did have an accessory: A sixth-place medal, the seventh of her stellar career. Yet even that prolific return of hardware doesn’t quite encapsulate all that Walsh takes away from her high school swimming experience. She understands the pressures at play at the level she ascended to so quickly.
Even in a state like Pennsylvania, with a record board littered with Olympians and a crop of college All-Americans aplenty, there’s a battle against yourself hidden in just about every race. Many of the girls record-holders set their fastest times as freshmen and sophomores, then chased in vain to better their former selves. The unforgiving nature of the watch can render cold judgments; forever boiling down your swimming existence to a set of numbers is a path to burnout and unhappiness.
Walsh understood that early, and her career trajectory made it a mandatory part of her curriculum. That freshman year still stands alone against the watch. She finished second in the 50 free in 23.20 seconds, a Delco record that still stands. Her finals time of 50.76 in the 100 free earned fourth and a year-long stay as the Delco standard.
Since then, Walsh has come close to replicating those times without bettering them in the high school realm. She has taken sixth each of the last three years in the 50 with times clustered within .02 seconds, including a 23.53 in prelims Friday that was identical to her 2018 finals time.
The 51.32 that earned sixth in the 100 free Saturday was slower than the 51.25 she used to take eighth in 2018 but quicker than the 52.13 she turned in as a sophomore. That last swim was the only non-medal swim of her individual states events, capping a challenging season that included an illness that kept her out of the Central League championships and two sprained ankles that cost her eight weeks of training.
No time will ever reflect in four digits that kind of adversity. Walsh’s experiences provide the contours to a journey at the heart of her achievements.
“It’s impossible to compare myself to the swimmer I was freshman year, because I’m a different person than I was freshman year,” Walsh said Friday. “I have a different life than I had freshman year. So I just try and take it day by day and race by race and not compare myself to what I was or what I could’ve been because you’re going to get nowhere if you’re always comparing yourself to an impossible standard.”
It also speaks to how extraordinary Walsh is physically. Though the only freshman among the 2016 finalists, you would’ve been hard-pressed to identify the 6-1 Walsh as the youngster. Her rangy physique and strength are uncommon, even among sprinters, and the uniqueness of her skillset sets her apart.
“I know it’s super common for a lot of teenage girls, especially in swimming, to hit a type of plateau,” she said. “Maybe they’ll drop in the future, or maybe they don’t. I know in my heart, I’m someone that’s not going to peak until my college years. I’m such a big girl and I’m such a determined, passionate person. I think something that can make people getting back into the groove is losing drive and losing passion, and I know I’m someone who will never lose my drive to win.”
This year is Walsh’s first solo states trip, with classmates Julia Colizzo (backstroke) and Madison Dickert (breaststroke) accompanying her in some form over the last three years. Both of those swimmers, outstanding in their own rights, indicate how difficult it is to make states four consecutive years much less final each time.
More important to Walsh is the support structure those swimmers have constructed for each other, which has helped them weather the ups and downs.
“My coaches, my family, my teammates are my biggest supporters in the whole world,” Walsh said. “I would be literally nowhere without them. And knowing they have my back, no matter if I win or lose, and knowing that they’re there to motivate me and make me the best athlete I can be, makes me want to work even harder, not even for myself but for them.”
Walsh’s swimming adventures aren’t at an end. She’ll attend the University of North Carolina, one of the best programs on the East Coast with a particular track record of standout freestylers. Her talent, work ethic and physical gifts portend plenty of upside remaining, and an elite environment to extend her work with Penncrest and Suburban Swim Club will benefit her.
But perhaps the biggest thing Walsh will bring to Chapel Hill, beyond the records and the medals and the measurable, is perspective on the process of self-improvement and comfort with the discomfort that competition entails.
“It’s nice to know that today is not the last you’ll see of me,” she said. “People are not done hearing about Claire Walsh, that’s for sure.”
