Former Mars swimmers take rightful place in HOF
The high school swimming careers of Courtney Shields and Rachel Szymkowiak paralleled each other.
They both arrived on the varsity scene in 2005 and were named Team MVP twice before graduating four years later. In between, they had a huge impact on the program.
It seemed fitting that they entered the Mars Athletic Hall of Fame on the same night as part of the Class of 2021.
Heidi Brandon, their coach from 2007-09, was also inducted.
"I was honored and blessed to go in with Coach Brandon and Courtney," Szymkowiak said. "We are the first two female swimmers from Mars to be inducted. We were pioneers."
Shields and Szymkowiak both earned a number of medals by placing in the top eight at the WPIAL championships, but their most notable accomplishments came at the state meet, for which they qualified all four years.
The former had yet to earn an individual state medal when she arrived at the PIAA meet as a senior in 2009, but finished eighth in the 100-yard freestyle and third in the 100 butterfly with a time of 57.24 seconds, over 2½ seconds faster than the previous year, when she placed 13th.
"I was often sick through my junior year," Shields said. "Strep throat, pneumonia, bronchitis and mono...I had them all and was so run down. I really focused on nutrition and my personal health leading into my senior year. Plus, I had a coach at the Allegheny Valley YMCA who really helped me."
Shields graduated as Mars' record-holder in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles and the butterfly.
Szymkowiak owned school standards in the individual medley and breaststroke, in which she placed fifth in the state as a senior. She added a pair of PIAA medals in the butterfly during her career.
"I started swimming competitively when I was 8-years-old and learned early on that I was a natural in the breaststroke," she said. "It's one of those strokes that swimmers either have or they don't. Usually, if you're good in the breaststroke, you're going to be good in the IM.
"Going to WPIALs and finding out if you made the state meet was super-fun. I have a lot of good memories from swimming in those two meets."
Shields and Szymkowiak also helped Mars place fourth and fifth at the PIAA event in the 200 medley relay their senior and junior season, respectively.
The duo benefitted from having each other as teammates.
"Rachel was a very competitive and hard-working swimmer," said Shields, who swam in college at Xavier University, where she managed a time of 57.34 in the 100 butterfly in 2012, fourth-best in school history at the time. "We swam some of the same events and we pushed each other to get better."
Athletes in any sport often form a strong bond from working and striving together, but this dynamic is accentuated at Mars since the school does not have its own pool.
"Waking up at 4 a.m. and going to practice (at another pool) before school started, it was a different experience from what a lot of high school kids have," said Shields, whose younger sister, Torrey, experienced the same grind as a swimmer for the Planets. "I became very close with some teammates. Two of them, Chloe and Gabi Pierre, were in my wedding."
Szymkowiak swam four years at the University of Akron, breaking the school record in the 200 breaststroke as a freshman with a time of 2:20.80. She was a captain for the Zips her senior year. Two of her college teammates were in her wedding last month.
"College swimming was a whole other level, very challenging," she said. "In high school, Courtney was there to push me, but in college, I was on a team full of Courtneys."
Shields and her husband, Eric Wilber, live in Valencia. The daughter of Tim Shields and Linnea (Michael) Pickard, she is an estimator and project manager for Shields Paving, Inc.
Szymkowiak is a physical therapist. She and her husband, Ryan Knepper, reside in Winchester, Va. She is the daughter of Paul and Anne Szymkowiak.
