Reaching the PIAA Championships – or states as they’re called – in any sport is always special for young student-athletes. Young athletes are going for medals that can give a lifetime of memories and for seniors, it’s a final exclamation point to their high school athletic careers. The venues are bigger. The spotlight is brighter.

Kinney Natatorium on the campus of Bucknell University has been home to states for swimming and diving since 2005. The facility has enough room to host the swimmers, divers, coaches, officials and media that gather, and they’ve run it enough times now that there are very few glitches. Sports completely take over the campus while students are on their spring break. The biggest glitch in recent years has been shifting media work rooms to different parts of the athletic complex to accommodate basketball playoff games for the highly successful women’s team at Bucknell. Imagine state swimming finals being held literally across a hallway from Patriot League basketball playoffs, but everybody has room to do what they need to do.

This year, a glitch came up that nobody could have planned for: COVID-19.

As writers and photographers gathered and reacquainted with each other on Wednesday, the first day of the four-day event, there were some discussions about being glad the event wasn’t cancelled because of this thing they were calling the coronavirus. It was just starting to hit the United States, but social distancing hadn’t become a part of our language or lives just yet.

The first day went off without a hitch. The swimming preliminaries for Class 3A schools in the morning, 3A boys diving championships in the middle of the day and swimming finals and consolations Wednesday night. Thursday was the final day for 3A schools and 2A schools would put on their show Friday and Saturday.

Things started to shift Wednesday night. The NBA game between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder was first delayed, then postponed. It was later announced that Rudy Gobert of the Jazz had tested positive for the coronavirus. That was the talk around Bucknell on Thursday, but the news still seemed far away.

On Thursday, the preliminaries again got underway in the morning and when they were completed, the 3A girls diving competition started. Shortly after that, one of the reporters spoke with a PIAA official who said the 2A competition on Friday and Saturday were being postponed. We then all watched our Twitter feeds as the NBA, NHL and other entities put their seasons on hold because of the virus. The Patriot League cancelled their basketball playoffs, shutting down the Bucknell women’s team. Then came rumors that the 3A finals for Thursday night were being cancelled. A local PIAA confirmed that the rumors were true. He also confirmed that medals would be awarded based on where swimmers finished in that morning’s preliminary races. At the same time, the PIAA also shut down the state basketball playoffs, which were in the quarterfinal round.

The news was bad for Parkland freshman Madison Tewksbury, who finished sixth in the 100-yard breaststroke preliminaries Thursday morning and wouldn’t have a chance to finish higher that night. If it was bad for Tewksbury. It was crushing for Trojan senior Annie Walls, who finished just .40 seconds out of first place in the 500-yard freestyle preliminaries. She had a good shot at improving her time in the finals and collecting gold, but never got the chance.

Walls and Tewksbury also didn’t get the opportunity to take to the medal stand in front of family and friends. Instead, they were told to expect to receive their medals in the mail in a few weeks.

Fortunately, seniors Lexi Lehman and Alexa Brinker were able to compete in the diving competition Thursday and took to the medal stand, finishing sixth and seventh respectively. Before the somewhat hasty medal ceremonies were even underway for diving, PIAA banners around the natatorium were being taken down. Shortly after the medal ceremony, announcements came to start clearing the natatorium. It was an orderly, but quick exit for both the 2A and 3A teams who were on campus.

The PIAA board of directors held a teleconference Monday morning and they still hope to hold the 2A swimming and diving competitions and resume the basketball playoffs at some point. There are also concerns that the spring sports season could be wiped out, much like the NCAA has done with their spring season.

It was a day like none other covering sports. Of course, the whole situation has become one like none other and sports are just a small part of life that has been disrupted. Eventually, life will get back to normal, but for some senior student-athletes, the shot at that final moment of glory may never play out.