All in a day’s work: West Chester swimmers help save a life between races | Mike Jensen

Medals may gather dust, end up in a closet. What swim events did they win back at the 2022 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships? Memories will fade.

Lunch at the mall in York between races … they will never forget.

“We were just having a little Subway in the food court, six of us,” Logan Brockway said this week, remembering the events of Feb. 17, spent with his West Chester University swim teammates. “I had a turkey sub. We were just eating.”

“You know how you kind of look around and people watch?’ said Stephen Dow, a fifth-year West Chester swimmer.

Dow noticed what was happening first. “I didn’t say anything to the guys at first. I was observing,” he said. He saw a man get behind a woman at another table. He watched for just a few seconds, then said something like, “This does not look good.”

She was choking. The man was trying to help but wasn’t sure what to do. Dow’s first thought was Heimlich maneuver, and he was ready to help. He would have jumped in. But he also thought that his own training was back in 2017. His teammate Logan actually teaches the Heimlich maneuver to aspiring lifeguards at a class at West Chester.

“He’s a lifeguard, he can help,” Brockway remembers Dow saying.

Brockway jumped into action, asked the woman if she could breathe. He got no real reaction.

“It seemed to be helping her,” Brockway said of the Heimlich. “She started being able to cough, was getting some air.”

Somebody had called 911. There was some confusion over the phone. Dow ran to the door where paramedics were headed, to lead them to the woman. They took over for Brockway.

“She never went unconscious,” Dow said this week.

The woman, maybe in her 60s, regained normal breathing, told the paramedics she was OK and didn’t need to go with them. That man who tried to help wasn’t with her, just another good samaritan. The swimmers went back to their sandwiches.

“She just walked out,” Dow said. “She just left like nothing happened.”

Which is kind of what the swimmers did. Back to the pool. For Brockway, a 200-freestyle relay final came first: First place, by a whisker. Maybe karma was along for the ride. An hour later, the 400-individual medley final.

“I think I was seeded second after the morning,” Brockway said of competing in the 400 IM. Another first.

“He makes my job easier as a coach,” West Chester head coach Steve Mazurek. “It’s been my most enjoyable year as a coach, and my easiest year. The men probably take their cues from Brock. You know, if integrity is the cornerstone of everything you do, you can’t lose.”

West Chester’s swimmers have a mantra: “How many victories can you have on your way to the blocks?”

Not a bad viewpoint.

“I don’t think I learned about it until we got to the pool that night,” Mazurek said of the events at the mall. “I kind of heard about it on the pool deck.”

“Captain Brock to the rescue,” the other swimmers started saying.

Brockway is from York. His parents were there for the races. After he won those races, his father said to him something like, “What the heck happened at lunch?”

“Oh my gosh, I had to put it behind me,” Brockway told his parents, then related it all to them.

Dow, an Avon Grove High graduate, came in fourth Thursday in the 100 breaststroke — really good, he said, since he’d been in the B final his last time at the PSAC championships. Then he followed that Saturday with his own triumph in the 200 breaststroke. Oh, that was a popular one.

“Stephen’s an underdog who outworks his competition,” Mazurek said. “He’s been told he can’t for much of his life, but he refuses to accept it. His teammates recognize that and they rally behind him. That’s why they call him the ‘Dow Plow’ and sing for him when he’s on the blocks. I’ve never seen anything like that. He went from being a walk-on to winning a conference title in the 200 breast. That wasn’t an accident.”

That was the last race of Dow’s collegiate career. It all goes in the books, and the team lore … but, even those memories will fade.

“HEY, WE LITERALLY SAVED A LIFE TODAY.”

A victory they’ll never forget, on the way to the starting blocks.