DURHAM – If Max Cross never swims competitively again, he would be just fine with that. The Concord High School senior has been participating in events since he was 7 years old, even taking lessons as a baby in the pool before he could talk.
But just because Cross has come to peace with his decision to leave the life in the pool behind, it didn’t make Saturday night’s Division I Swimming & Diving Championships any less nerve-racking.
“I was really nervous coming in today,” said Cross, who finished sixth in both the 50 yard free and 100 backstroke for the Crimson Tide. “Once I got behind the block, I got peaceful and all the nerves went away. It’s like this is going to be one of my last races ever and it’s kind of nice.”
Cross finished his 50 in 23.38 seconds and swam the 100 backstroke in a time of 57.43 to help the Concord boys nab a ninth-place finish out of 14 teams with a score of 48. While Cross said his time in the pool has taken a toll on him, he was also unsure how he was going to react when it came to an end.
“I tell my mother all the time that if you eat pizza every day for 10,000 days, you get pretty sick of pizza and that’s kind of how swimming is right now, especially this year,” Cross said. “It’s a big chapter of my life ending and I don’t really know how I’m going to deal with it afterwards. I might be a little emotional at the end leaving it all behind but I’m excited.”
“There’s something that I call swimming IQ and his IQ is off the charts,” Concord Coach Bill Quinn said of Cross. “He just knows himself, he knows his limits and how to push his limits. I’m going to miss him. I think he’s a great kid and a fantastic swimmer.”
Of course, not all the Crimson Tide swimmers will be graduating this year, and junior Kevin Quinn made the most of his opportunities in the pool at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gymnasium.
Quinn placed fifth in the 500 free, setting a personal-best by nearly 10 seconds with a time of 5:05.74, while Mackenzie Witham paced the Concord girls, who finished 15th overall, with a new PR in her first 50 of the 400 free relay. Witham shaved four seconds off her previous best time, and along with teammates Delia Barry, Hannah Mitchell and Hannah Eliason, led the Tide to a ninth-place finish in the relay. Witham also finished 14th in the 50 free with a time of 27.35 seconds.
“Everybody swam really well,” Quinn said. “I was really happy and I’m always happy at the end of the season if kids do personal bests, and by and large, we had mostly personal bests.”
In Division II action during the morning session, it was Bow’s Katie Jenkins stealing the show among local teams. Jenkins set two new schools records: a third-place finish in the 100 butterfly with a time of 59.13 and then smashing the record books again in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:01.79. Jenkins hard work in the pool led the Bow girls to a seventh place finish as a team with a score of 73.
Bow also enjoyed standout performances from Amanda Sampo, who finished eighth in the 100 free, as well as Sonya DeLorie, who dropped nearly three seconds in her 100 butterfly to place 12th. The 200 freestyle relay team of Delorie, Sampo, Jenkins and Riley Hicks also set a school record, placing fifth with a time of 1:48.12.
For other local programs, Hopkinton’s Bin Bin Schell placed 11th in the 100 backstroke while teammate Sydney Stockwell took multiple seconds of both of her events in the 100 free and 100 backstroke to place 12th.
Gilford junior Beck Mclean swam to ninth place (2:04.67) in the boys 200 free while freshman Laurel Gingrich scored four points for the Golden Eagles in the 50 free, finishing ninth with a final time of 26.44 seconds. Lakes Region neighbor Laconia had Eric Phelps deliver on the big stage as well. Phelps, a freshman, placed sixth in both the 200 IM and 100 backstroke.
The Coe-Brown girls, who placed eighth overall as a team with a score of 68, had their 200 free relay team finish third overall. Emelia Cronshaw, Codi Boheen, Gabby Arena and Cassuarina French combined to finish the race in 1:47.80. Cronshaw also finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke.
(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3340, jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JayMcAree.)