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By David Rieder.
The two teenagers bobbed their way up and down the pool, and they could not be split. Danielle Dellatorre and Janessa Mathews were in a 50 breast swim-off, necessitated by the two tying in the event’s prelims an hour earlier.
Dellatorre, a 17-year-old from Athens Bulldogs Swim Club, and Mathews, 16 years old from the Ohio State Swim Club, tied for 35th in prelims. But since their shared time of 32.64 was the ninth-best among the 18-and-under swimmers eligible for the C-final, the two would swim off determine who would be first alternate for the evening. Sounds simple, right?
Dellatorre and Mathews weren’t thinking about the implications of their impending duel—they were just pumped to have another chance to race—but at least it was only a 50.
“Well, I’d never actually had to do a swim-off before,” Dellatorre said.
“Same, yeah,” Mathews cut in.
“So, it’s like, of course, it would be at this meet, and I’d have to do a swim-off,” Dellatorre added.
Their swim-off was the second of five swim-offs slated for after the morning session, five of them in 50-meter events. Mathews was in lane four and Dellatorre in lane five. They dove in, they raced, they touched the wall… and they tied again?
The scoreboard flashed identical marks of “1” and “32.80” next to the two names. Immediately, the sparse crowd remaining at the IUPUI Natatorium erupted, and announcer Sam Kendricks belted his signature “BOOMSHAKALAKA!”
In the water, Mathews and Dellatorre looked at each other and then back at the scoreboard, totally unsure of what to do next. They laughed and shrugged. Did that mean they would have to swim off again?
More importantly, did they want to race it again? Mathews, yes, for sure. Dellatorre, on the other hand had mixed feelings.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, another one?’ Our Saturday morning practices we do 50s or 150s or 200s off the blocks back to back to back, so I kind of felt prepared, but it was sorta like, ‘This would happen to me,’” Dellatorre said.
So after a bit of time to cool down and get back down to the far end of the pool, the two girls got back behind the blocks for what turned out to be the sixth swim-off of the day. In the background, the theme song to “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” played for Dellatorre vs. Mathews, round three.
This time—finally—there would be a winner: Dellatorre finished in 32.31, by far her fastest time of the day, while Mathews came in at 32.73, still faster than her time from the first swim-off.
No more ties, no third swim-off. And barring any crazy developments during the night session, no second swim for either of them.
Photo Courtesy: David Rieder
But none of that mattered for Mathews or Dellatorre. Matthews even insisted that she would be up for getting up to race a fourth time if the duo had tied again. (Dellatorre, on the other hand, seemed ready for food and some rest.)
As the two parted ways behind the blocks, Georgia head coach Jack Bauerle walked up to Dellatorre, who is signed to compete for the Bulldogs beginning this fall.
“You two will be friends forever,” Bauerle said.
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