Let's Appreciate Greatness While It Happens

written by swimwv.co

When miraculous or unbelievable things happen multiple times, it is common to believe that it will happen all the time. This is the basic coaching philosophy of breaking through barriers to get personal best achievements in a sport. Yet, when you see a collection of gifted athletes and they consistently do great things, it can often lead the spectator to believe that this is normal. This happens all the time in sports. Cal Ripken and his 2632 consecutive games streak, the Boston Celtics and eight consecutive NBA titles, the Boston Bruins 29 consecutive seasons in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the UConn Huskies Women’s Basketball team’s 111 straight victories, and Cy Young’s 749 complete games are just a few examples of greatness in sports that were appreciated, yet maybe not fully celebrated while it happened. Usually the streak does not get celebrated until many years after it is over when the realization hits that this achievement may never happen again.

When you think about the 2023 Girls State Swim Meet, it was almost like a swan song of five truly gifted swimmers that are some of the best West Virginia has seen. Collectively, Maddie Foster (Winfield), Victoria Kidney (John Marshall), Madi McGlothen (George Washington), Caroline Riggs (Morgantown), and Cadence Vincent (Buckhannon Upshur) have won 36 of a possible 44 State Titles and have broken 14 records either by themselves or in relays. These four have swam all four years and even won titles as a freshman. It is hard to just win a state title, but it is incredibly rare to win a state title as a freshman. These are incredible accomplishments on their own, but what makes them huge is that they have occurred at a time when the State Meet is now streamed live. In the years before streaming the state meet, the results were posted on a heat sheet. Although the time was understood to be great, it was hard to visualize as it was not seen by as many people as it is now.

The biggest takeaway from the Girls State Swim Meet I have is that it served as a sendoff to these five swimmers. There was not a single event at the meet that was not won by these five swimmers. Although these swimmers have been dominant since their freshman year, there has not been a state meet when all events were won by just these five swimmers. That is an incredible accomplishment! If there was a way to dream an epic ending to their collective high school careers, it would be drawn up similar to this. Although dominant performances have been seen in previous years, it is usually done by a single swimmer or a couple of swimmers. Very rarely do you see five swimmers of this caliber for four straight years. I know in swimming, we like to focus on individuals and their times, but I would like to change that focus for this meet on these five individuals.

To better put this in perspective, these are the times from the Top 6 and the State Champion from the 2019 State Meet (the year before these swimmers were at the state meet) and this years meet.

Although 3.5% seems like a small number, this would be equivalent to dropping a whole second in a typical 50 Yard Freestyle Race. Ask any swimmer how possible it is to drop a complete second in this race, and he/she will laugh hysterically about this possibility. To see that kind of change in the state champion is huge! This effect at the top trickled down to the Top 6 as well where there is a pretty decent percentage drop of .39%.

I truly hope this helps put in perspective how great these five have been the past four years. There will always be top swimmers in the state who do great things. This is the beauty of the state meet. When someone graduates, there is always someone else that will win these events. I just hope we enjoyed the experience of seeing these ladies break as many records as they have and understand that this is not common.

In addition to these five ladies, let us also not brush past George Washington’s team accomplishments. In the past three years they have won by 40, 45, and 15 points. This year, they left no doubt the entire meet as they won by 69 points. That is incredibly hard to do! In order to accomplish an almost 70 point victory, there has to be an incredible amount of depth on the team. Usually as the years go on, the titles get harder and harder to win and margins get smaller. It is incredible that they were able to win by more points than their previous three years of being champions.  

I heard recently from a media source that was asked if West Virginia is starting to look better for Division 1 and 2 college recruiters. I truly hope this becomes true in the future, as the five swimmers mentioned above have truly set a standard that future classes will definitely want to meet and exceed. Will George Washington or another team start an incredible State Championship run next season and beyond? I cannot wait to see what the future holds for girl’s swimming in West Virginia. For now I want to enjoy and remember the races that these individuals swam before they become just another name and time written on the top of the state meet heat sheet.