LEWISBURG — Joey McLaughlin’s journey is complete.
The Blue Mountain senior capped a superb swimming career Wednesday by helping the Eagles’ 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay teams reach the consolation finals at the PIAA Class AA Swimming Championships.
The Eagles didn’t achieve their goal of capturing a state medal, but the quartet of sophomore Mark Boran, senior Nathanael Marino, sophomore Stephen Johnson and McLaughlin were ecstatic after finishing 13th in both the 200-yard medley relay (1:41.52) and the 200 freestyle
relay (1:32.16) at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium.
For McLaughlin, who went out for swimming two years ago after a series of concussions ended his football career, it was a combination of happiness and sadness.
Happiness for his team’s achievements, but sadness about the fact that it’s all over.
“It’s been awesome. I wouldn’t want to spend a day like this with anyone else,” McLaughlin said. “The four of us, everyone on our Blue Mountain team, has worked so hard all season. It’s been an honor to swim tonight.
“It was awesome to be out there tonight and an honor to swim with my three best friends one more time.”
Seeded 11th in the 200 medley relay, the Eagles were 12th in the morning preliminaries in 1:42.05, earning a spot in the consolation finals.
They earned another return trip to the night session later Wednesday morning after placing 11th in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:31.64.
Last year, the Eagles were 17th in both relay events in the preliminaries, just missing a berth in the consolation finals.
“All of us, we’ve worked so hard for this. We pulled through,” Marino said. “We put everything into it and we made our coaches proud and our families proud.
“It was a fun experience.”
For McLaughlin, Wednesday night’s accomplishments came despite a heavy bout of adversity.
McLaughlin sustained a bloody nose during warm-ups, and had to be treated by Dr. Tom Boran — Mark’s father — prior to the 200 medley relay. He got another one before the 200 freestyle relay, but was able to get it stopped just in time.
“I was doing my warm-ups and it started bleeding,” McLaughlin said. “I’ve had four nose bleeds in the past two days. I was taking stuff, and Dr. Boran helped me out and got me ready.
“I did the medley, and right before the 200 free relay it started bleeding again. I was trying to take care of that while we’re walking up to the blocks.
“We did what we had to do. We did well.”
While the Blue Mountain relay teams advanced to the night session, the same couldn’t be said for the Eagles’ individual events.
Marino was 20th (2:02.32) and Boran was 24th (2:05.03) in the 200 IM prelims, while Johnson was 26th in the 50 freestyle (22.64).
“I was just happy I got to make more memories with these guys,” Johnson said. “I love spending time with them. I couldn’t have asked for a better day, or a better season. It was awesome.”
That seemed to be the theme Wednesday for the Eagles, who cherished their final time together.
Action continues today at the PIAA Swimming Championships in the 100 freestyle, 500 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke and 400 freestyle, with Boran (100 backstroke) and Marino (100 breaststroke) competing.
Wednesday, however, was all about the relays, and getting to swim together one last time.
“It was exhilarating. Just having everyone there, cheering every single person on, all of us together ... you can’t beat that,” Marino said. “All the excitement, all the happiness being here and swimming here, it’s phenomenal. We all wanted it so much. We achieved our goal of getting here, and we did very well here.”
Added McLaughlin: “We’re not just a team. We’re one big family. The three members of my relay team are my brothers, the best friends I have. It was awesome.
“For Nathanael and I, it was great to end our swim careers on a high note.”