WPIAL swimming championships – behind the scenes
Typically, whenever you watch a sporting event, you see the results, the times and who placed first. You don’t get the behind-the-scenes story – the trials and tribulations, injuries, ups and downs, and the blood, sweat and tears that go along with it. As my rather philosophical mother would say, “It’s not the destination that matters, but the journey,” and well, I must say that I do find that quite fitting in the case of the WPIAL Swimming and Diving Championship.
A couple weekends ago, the swimming portion of WPIAL was hosted at Trees Pool at the University of Pittsburgh. In fact, you might have heard about the line of crazy parents, some of who camped out overnight in the freezing cold to buy tickets, just as an avid shopper would on Black Friday.
I guess you could say that there is some type of allure to WPIAL, especially from the swimmer side of things, which sets it apart from any other meet. I have teammates who went on health-conscious WPIAL diets, opting to eat an entirely fruit-and-vegetable-based diet. I have teammates who began counting down the days until Feb. 20 and 21. But, even more broadly, my whole swim team has been training the whole swim season in hopes of qualifying for WPIAL and like any athlete, to improve. I have teammates who qualified for WPIAL for not just one, but several events, all at their last meet of their senior year.
The Peters Township High School Swim Team also has a tradition – the entire boys’ team will bleach their hair, dye it a crazy color or style it a crazy way, and then the day before WPIALS, shave all of their hair off. Obviously, the girls’ team didn’t go to that extreme, but we, as a team, collectively dyed a strand of our hair or got a colored extension. So yes, I guess you could say that WPIALs are a big deal, especially in Peters Township.
As for the actual event, it was like any other regular-season swim meet, just on a larger scale and more thrilling, as just one hundredth of a second could often be the difference between first and second or whether you advance to states or not. The mood inside was infectious – you saw swimmers crying after their races, out of joy or disappointment, and swimmers cheering for their teammates. But more importantly, you saw stunned swimmers embracing and congratulating their teammates, sharing their accomplishments with them.
Even before the WPIAL meet itself, in the regular meet season, that was where the true magic was happening as swimmers cheered each other on as they swam their personal bests or made a WPIAL cut, bonded through several pasta dinners hosted by seniors’ families, and laughed together at team parties.
So, yes, going to WPIAL was a significant experience for me, but only because I got to spend each second of the journey to WPIAL, surrounded by my teammates.
Stephanie Wang is a sophomore at Peters Township High School.