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They were forlorn.
				They were frustrated.
				They were furious.
				They came to swim in the state championships at Bucknell University and were sent packing.
				A little thing called the coronavirus that&rsquo;s a really big &mdash; and serious &mdash; deal got in their way.
				Understand, not much stands in the way of a dedicated high school swimmer.
				It&rsquo;s a sport unlike any other. Maybe track and field is the closest comparison.
				The regular season is more of a tune-up, with each meet sort of a practice to see how much participants improve, and how far they need to go to reach another level.
				They all want to reach their highest level by the very end, for district championships, and ultimately state championships.
				They arrived not only by times that turned out to be among the best in the state, but by car and bus on the campus at Bucknell as they prepared to check in.
				&ldquo;We literally pulled up to registration,&rdquo; Wyoming Seminary senior swimmer Kylee Kolbicka said, &ldquo;and a security guard had to tell us to turn around and go home. It&rsquo;s like dangling a carrot, then having it ripped away from us at the last minute.
				&ldquo;Honestly, the best way to describe how I&rsquo;m feeling, it&rsquo;s kind of heartbreaking at this point.&rdquo;
				Her good friend and summer training partner Melissa Leonard had a few other words for it.
				&ldquo;It was really upsetting,&rdquo; said Leonard, a distance swimmer from Dallas High School. &ldquo;Definitely very disappointing. Because the PIAA did not inform us until we were all there. I really think they should have had it (the state title meet), considering every Double-A team was down there and ready to swim.&rdquo;
				This all happened mid-day Thursday, on the second and final day of the Class 3A state championships and as Class 2A teams were supposed to register for their preliminaries and finals scheduled for Friday and Saturday. But the PIAA followed the lead of the other professional and college sports and other states where the coronavirus showed up and postponed its winter season state championships for at least two weeks.
				At least they got Class 3A diving in.
				&ldquo;If I had to wait, that would mean I had to practice more,&rdquo; said Wyoming Valley West senior Sophia Ginochetti, who took eighth place and won her first PIAA diving medal on the next-to-last attempt for any competitor before Pennsylvania high school sports shut down for awhile. &ldquo;And then with the coronavirus, you don&rsquo;t know when you&rsquo;re going to get time to practice on the boards.&rdquo;
				Swimming was hardly the only sport affected by the PIAA&rsquo;s decision.
				The state basketball playoffs were also put on hold, meaning the Dallas boys team will have to wait awhile to play a game in the Class 5A quarterfinals, and the beginning of practice for spring sports was pushed back. On Friday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf last week implemented a two-week shutdown of the state&rsquo;s high schools starting Monday &mdash; no school, no extracurricular activities.
				Which explains why Wyoming Seminary and a couple other schools around the Wyoming Valley Conference practiced this weekend, in an attempt to beat the state deadline.
				&ldquo;Baseball and softball are trying to make the most of the time we have now,&rdquo; said Kolbicka, also a starter on Sem&rsquo;s softball team.
				But swimming is the sport that may suffer the most.
				The Dallas boys can go bounce basketballs around in the streets if they want or keep sharp by shooting buckets on their own at local parks. Track and field athletes can run, or throw, any time they want. Volleyball players can round up a couple guys and hit with each other, and baseball and softball players can hit off a batting tee.
				The governor&rsquo;s order prevents teams and crowds from gathering &mdash; anywhere, really &mdash; in an attempt help contain the possible spread of the coronavirus. Athletic concerns began after a family member of a Cheltenham student was exposed to the virus. Cheltenham&rsquo;s boys basketball team was scheduled to play in the state tournament this past week, and their opponents balked at the idea before the PIAA ultimately postponed the games.
				But if they resume, players on those teams should be able to stay active and shake off a little rust after a waiting period.
				With pools closing all around them, swimmers&rsquo; hopes for great state championship performances may very well sink.
				&ldquo;Honestly, there&rsquo;s no way for us to really prepare at this point,&rdquo; said Leonard, who is seeded third in the 200 freestyle and fourth in the 500 free. &ldquo;Our school is shut down, so there&rsquo;s no way for me to practice. I guess we could do some working out on land, but I don&rsquo;t know if that would really benefit us. As I know, YMCA events were canceled, I&rsquo;d assume the YMCA would be closed, the CYC. We&rsquo;d go to Misericordia, but they&rsquo;re closed. There&rsquo;s not really much we can do with the situation.
				&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to find a pool.&rdquo;
				Even if they do, it may not help much.
				Because after a whole season of events, swimmers then taper at the end &mdash; with a week of hard training followed by a week on the lighter side &mdash; to prepare for optimum performance at districts and states.
				One thing leads straight to another in a progression.
				&ldquo;This is kind of where the gray area comes in with swimming,&rdquo; said Kolbicka, a member of Sem&rsquo;s 400 freestyle relay team that&rsquo;s seeded third and also the fifth-seeded 200 freestyle relay. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like any other sport. I know softball practices are very different than they are with swimming. I mean, we lift and we start to prepare for taper itself. And tapering only lasts so long, it&rsquo;s not going to last for two weeks. You have this little window of taper.
				&ldquo;With swimming, you&rsquo;re progressing all through the year.&rdquo;
				Break that progression, and the whole chain of momentum is gone for good.
				It&rsquo;s like playing three quarters of a basketball game, then waiting a few weeks to play the fourth. The flow is forever changed.
				&ldquo;Having the state meet in two or three weeks, it wouldn&rsquo;t be as much fun,&rdquo; Leonard said. &ldquo;Some of my teammates were going for records. I know I could have done very well. With this whole waiting, I won&rsquo;t be swimming as much. I wouldn&rsquo;t want to not swim a good time and end my senior year on a note of having a bad race. We tapered down for the meet, were ready to go Friday. Now, it&rsquo;s probably not going to be anywhere close to the times you are seeded at. It&rsquo;s my senior year, it&rsquo;s my last race.
				&ldquo;In a way, I&rsquo;d rather let my races from districts be my last rather out with races that probably won&rsquo;t be my best.&rdquo;
				That may be what happens.
				The PIAA hasn&rsquo;t decided to make its Class 2A state swimming championships a definite, suspending events for two weeks while trying to determine what steps to take next. And that was before the governor&rsquo;s order to close schools.
				If the championships are eventually held, word&rsquo;s already circulating that the stands and the decks, could be cleared of fans and teammates, or at least limited.
				&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a person that holds out hope,&rdquo; Kolbicka said.
				They have no choice but to hope for the best during a public health threat with a timing that seems so unfair.

Sokoloski: For swimmers in particular, PIAA postponements hit hard