(EDITOR’S NOTE: Sports writer Chuck Hixson was covering the PIAA swimming and diving championships at Bucknell University when the sports world came to a halt. Here is his recollection of the day the meet came to an abrupt stop during the middle of the competition).

BY CHUCK HIXSON

tnsports@tnonline.com

Reaching states in any sport is always special for young student-athletes.

Young kids competing for medals can provide a lifetime of memories. For seniors, it’s a final exclamation point to their high school athletic careers. The venues are bigger, and the spotlight is brighter.

Kinney Natatorium, on the campus of Bucknell University, has been home to state 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 its students are on 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 Bucknell’s highly successful women’s team.

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 (March 11) - the first day of the four-day event - there was talk about how glad they were the event wasn’t canceled 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 just yet.

The first day went off without a hitch. The swimming preliminaries for 3A schools were held in the morning, 3A boys diving championships took place in the middle of the day and swimming finals and consolations went on as planned that evening. Thursday was the final scheduled day for 3A schools, with 2A schools to put on their show Friday and Saturday.

But 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.

On Thursday, the 3A preliminaries again got underway in the morning. After 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 was 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 canceled their basketball playoffs, shutting down the Bucknell women’s team.

As all of this was going on and the focus got back to diving, word came down that the 3A finals for Thursday night were also being canceled. 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.

As the 3A diving competition finished, PIAA banners around the natatorium were being taken down even before the diving medals were awarded. After a somewhat hasty 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.

Students from 2A schools who had their events postponed started to file out dejected, but still thinking that their events would be held two weeks later. Meanwhile, 3A students who had qualified for finals, but never got a chance to swim in their respective events, lamented the missed opportunity to potentially finish higher than they did in preliminaries. They would receive medals, but instead of getting them during a medal ceremony in front of friends and family, they would get them in the mail. The news was especially tough for seniors.

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 its spring season.

It was a day like no other covering sports. Of course, the whole situation has become one like no 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.