I think it’s safe to say that water and I don’t get along. I was the kid in summer camp who failed the swim test and had to sit with the counselors during pool time. Picture a highlighter-yellow “CAN’T SWIM” wristband, a dry suit, and no friends. When it comes to the pool, I’ve always been an outsider—until last leap day, when my sneakers hit the pool deck of the IU Natatorium to catch day two of the Big East Championships.
I’d visited the Nat on high school campus tours, but the experience of a swim meet was totally new to me. My friend Via Keith, a photography intern at Auxiliary Services, showed me the ropes. I got a press lanyard with my headshot on it and wore a sweater I didn’t mind getting wet. On the evening of Thursday, February 29th, I met her by concessions, and we descended a flight of stairs that led us to the pool deck.
If you’ve never been inside the Nat before, watch this video. Now, imagine that facility packed with screaming fans, bright lights, pom-poms, staff in business suits and polos, journalists with cameras and boom mics, and, of course, the swim teams themselves, sporting painted faces, rubber caps, wet hair, and Speedos. Everyone was shouting. The din rose all the way up to the vaulted ceiling, where a network of spotlights shone onto the pool lanes.
And then, as Via and I positioned ourselves next to the Butler University team, the swimmers took their marks for the first event.
Eight gazes locked onto the lanes in front of them. Eight bodies crouched on the ledge between screaming fans and the glassy, impartial pool water. Then, as the starting horn blared, the swimmers leapt off the blocks as one, lingering in midair as they arched toward the pool in parallel lines like an unspoken athletic miracle. They splashed into the water. The pool reached toward a sky it couldn’t see. Eight muscular arms surfaced to grab for more—further—faster. And, just like that, the race was on.
The fans were ecstatic. They shouted for swimmers to gain the lead, keep the lead, lose the lead. They pumped one arm side to side as if telepathically moving their athlete of choice through the water. Behind it all was the percussive splash, splash, splash, of legs and feet flailing for just one less second on the clock.
Then, the eight swimmers reached the end of the pool and ricocheted off the back wall. The lead swimmer resurfaced first, then the others, and they continued in the opposite direction. Back and forth they went until the final lap, and then eight hands touched the wall and the crowd exploded.
It was like coming home after high school homecoming the way my ears rang. Surrounded by focused media professionals, I stood cameraless with a huge grin on my face. The fans’ energy pushed the boundaries of the space, thundering with victory and fury, and I was one of them.
Beside me, Via snapped a photo of the fastest swimmer looking at the video screen to see her own face reflected back at her, discovering, several moments after everyone else, that she had won her event.
“I always love their faces,” Via shouted in my ear.
In the down time between events, she explained the basics of the sport. Lanes were assigned based on the swimmers’ previous times, with the fastest swimmer in the fourth lane and the next seven alternating out to each side of the pool. Since we arrived around six o’clock, we caught the finals for the 500 yard freestyle, women first, then men. After that was the 200 yard individual medley, combining the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle strokes for 50 yards each. The swimmer that had just claimed the 500 free title was Allie Waggoner from Seton Hall University.
She had since pulled herself out of the pool and was celebrating with her teammates a few feet away from me, wrapping them all in super-soaker hugs.
As the next batch of swimmers lined up on the blocks, I felt a now-familiar thrill in my stomach. While I wouldn’t be taking a dip in the pool anytime soon, it brought me so much joy to watch these talented athletes doing what they loved in a space that was designed, brick by brick, to support them in their pursuit of excellence. IU Indianapolis did that, making our own Jaguar contribution to the success of other universities and the sport as a whole. The “Hoosier-hospitality” of it all warmed my heart.
Last month, IU Natatorium director Ed Merkling told me that one of his favorite moments is seeing newcomers to the facility develop a sense of wonder for its vastness and significance in the world of swimming and diving. I get it now. I “got it” the moment my eyes first adjusted to the lights of the pool deck. The IU Natatorium gained a new swim fan last Thursday, and now that I’ve gotten my feet wet, I’m so excited to see more.
After the 500 freestyle and 200 IM, I left the Nat to meet a friend after his evening math class. He waved hello, then wrinkled his nose. “You smell like chlorine,” he said.
I grinned wide. “Yeah,” I said. “I was at the Nat.”
For more on this event, check out this photo gallery courtesy of photography intern Via Keith.
Maggie Regan
Such a compelling story with heart, Maggie. Love seeing your personality shine through in this one!!