Katie O’Rourke didn’t get her touchdown, which isn’t earth-shattering since she’s a swimmer and not a football player. The worst news was the reason why she didn’t score.
While playing a game of touch football with her Eastern Express swim teammates last September, O’Rourke got the ball, got in Adrian Peterson mode and headed for the end zone.
Still a long way off, O’Rourke tripped, landed on the sidewalk and the dream of six points were shattered. So was her knee, and therein lies the worst news.
“It wasn’t pretty,” the Lawrence High School junior said. “I split my knee open to the bone so it was a little bit shocking but the adrenaline really helped it and didn’t hurt that much.”
It would keep her out of the pool for a month, however, as Katie became a victim of never giving up.
“I was going for the touchdown and it was my last ditch effort and I tripped and fell,” she said, adding with a laugh, “Typical swimmer.”
Typical on the ground, perhaps. But in the pool O’Rourke is atypical in all the right ways, as the junior proved on Feb. 2 when she was named Most Valuable Swimmer of the Mercer County Championships at West Windsor-Plainsboro North. It was the second straight year O’Rourke received the award, and she earned it by winning the 50 freestyle in 27.3 seconds and the 100 free in 59.5.
“That was really great,” O’Rourke said. “I was really surprised. There were some great seniors there and I’m friends with a lot of the seniors. They had posted some really great times and some had gotten two first places just like me. I really didn’t think it would happen and I was shocked. It was an honor.”
It was also a tribute to how she battled back from adversity. Neither times were personal bests for O’Rourke, which is usually what swimmers measure themselves by. But considering she had a shortened season due to the knee injury, it wasn’t too disappointing. After her mishap, doctors cleaned out the knee, inserted two pins and applied stitches on the inside and staples on the outside. She never got down despite the injury.
“I was really thinking about how I’m going to get back to where I was,” O’Rourke said from Florida, where she was training with 10-time Olympic medalist Gary Hall in mid-February. “I wasn’t depressed; I was really motivated to get back to where I’ve been. Everyone was supporting me. My school friends, my team, they all visited me in the hospital and kept my spirits up all the time.
“While I was out I made sure I wasn’t moving it around. I had a brace for a while. After a month I got back in the water again with the brace on, and I got the brace off after two months.”
And finally, O’Rourke was back and doing what she loved.
O’Rourke has been swimming since age 5, after being tricked into it by her mother. O’Rourke was resisting the urge to swim when her mom took her to the pool “to play.” Once they arrived, a group of girls was pointed out to her as her new swim team and she was urged to go join them. The group of girls was the Lawrence Swim Association team, and since that day O’Rourke has been loving life in the water.
She is still with the LSA and swam with the Lawrence Lightning until age 11. She then moved to Pennington Aquatics and last year switched to the Eastern Express, one of the area’s top club programs.
Her accomplishments in high school swimming can safely be termed “impressive.” As a freshman, she finished second in the 50 freestyle and sixth in the 100 backstroke at the county meet. Last year, she was seeded third entering the finals of both her events but won the 50 free in 26.63 and the 100 free in 59.47. Immediately following her performance, Cardinals coach Mike Underwood praised his star’s modesty and said, “She’s what you want your daughter to be and the girl you want your son to date. She’s fantastic.”
Underwood has not changed his tune one year later after she gained her second MVP award.
“She is a quiet leader and a wonderful supporter of her fellow swimmers,” the veteran coach said. “Kate is a true standout in the center of the pool.”
O’Rourke felt fortunate that the events she swims are sprints, which meant the injury didn’t hurt her as much as a distance swimmer.
“It didn’t set me back that much. You don’t need that much of an aerobic base for sprinting,” O’Rourke said. “It took away what I could do in practice, but not really with sprinting.”
Nonetheless, the fact O’Rourke hadn’t prepped for the county meet made her effort even more remarkable.
“We’re right in the middle of club season,” she said. “I couldn’t really rest. But I wanted to go out and try to get the 50 free and get close to the record.”
She didn’t get the record, but got two wins she wasn’t really expecting.
“I didn’t think I was going to win both my events,” O’Rourke said. “There were some great competitors there. Maddie (Horner) from Steinert and the girl from Pennington (Lauren Klei) is really tough. We had some great swimmers in the county meet and it was really great to race against them to see what I could do.”
Because of those talented foes, the race was as much about competing with each other as it was about competing with one’s self.
“It really is all about trying to get your best times but it is kind of fun to go out there and race,” O’Rourke said. “I was focusing on trying to do my best. Sometimes you do go in there with a racing mentality.
“I was happy with how I swam. I wish I could have gotten down to the times of my sophomore year but coming back from an injury like that, those times are OK. It was frustrating. I definitely think I can get (a personal best) at states. I’ll start working toward it now.”
The state meet is in early March at Gloucester Institute of Technology, and O’Rourke is making her second straight trip. She recorded her PBs at last year’s states when she finished second in the 50 free (23.7) and sixth in the 100 (52.2). The girl who beat her in the 50 last year graduated, but O’Rourke knows that some new girls could be on the scene, so she’s not considering herself the favorite.
“Usually that’s around the time where we taper (for club) and we’re ready to race,” O’Rourke said. “Hopefully I’ll be nice and rested. I’m hoping to do the best I can.”
Underwood is just anxious to see it all play out.
“It is very exciting to watch her swim with power and grace,” he said. “I often hear the boys on our team compliment how strong she looks in the water, and also that her times are sometimes faster than theirs.”
