Steve VirgenNicole Mackey found the perfect remedy...

Steve Virgen

Nicole Mackey found the perfect remedy for the sickness she battled

with March 11. Call it, “CdM-edicine.”

Mackey, the Newport Harbor High star swimmer, was enduring sinus

pain and nausea. But when she was called upon to attend school so

that she would be able to face rival Corona del Mar with her Sailor

teammates, things became more clear.

“On the day of the meet, I just felt sick,” said Mackey, a senior.

“I didn’t want to go to school. But it was our rivals and I knew we

had to beat them. It was an important meet, so I just went to

school.”

Mackey had missed the previous day of school before the meet. She

even sat out of races at a club meet in Alberta, Calgary last week,

when she had a fever with a temperature of 102 degrees.

But, when the Sea Kings came to Newport, she decided to set aside

her aches and pains. Mackey won the 100-yard butterfly (1:00.71) and

100 breaststroke (1:09.01) to help set up a dramatic ending to a

tight meet against CdM.

Newport Harbor needed to win and finish third in the final event

to secure bragging rights over the Sea Kings. Mackey, the Daily Pilot

Athlete of the Week, contributed to the Sailors’ 400 freestyle relay,

leading Newport to an 86-84 win over CdM.

“Those times are horrible,” Mackey said of her sickly performance.

“I swam so bad. But I’ll get better. If it was any other nonleague

meet, I would have asked [Coach Ken LaMont] to leave me out. It was

so close, too. If I didn’t go we probably would have lost. It came

down to the last relay. We had to win it. It was really exciting.”

There was hardly a question Mackey would miss the meet against

CdM. After all, it was one of the more important days in her senior

season at Newport. She knew this year would be special, mainly

because of the decision she made before the school year started.

Her family moved from Newport Beach to Los Alamitos this past

summer, and Mackey briefly though about changing schools. However

that would mean she would leave her friends, and she would not be

able to swim for a high school team. So, she is sacrificing the drive

to Newport Harbor.

It’s not much of a sacrifice, considering she trains with the

Irvine Novaquatics swim club, which practices at Orange Coast College

Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.

Mackey’s days usually begin at 4:30 a.m. It’s about a 45-minute

drive to OCC, and she’s there swimming until 7 a.m. Then it’s off to

Newport for classes.

This being her senior year, she has shorter days and finishes

classes at 12:15 p.m., and that’s when the fun starts for Mackey.

Practice with the Novas doesn’t start until 3, so Mackey sometimes

decides to hit the waves. The surfer girl is determined to make her

senior year memorable, but more importantly, fun.

“I love swimming to death, but the thing is, I don’t like to

practice,” Mackey said. “The biggest reason I swim is for the meets.

But I know that practice is important to do well in the meets. So I

have to practice.”

Mackey, who qualified for the 2000 Olympic Trials when she was 15,

has been a club swimmer throughout her years at Newport. But she

enjoys the high school meets because it gives her a chance to get

away from the rigorous training with her club team, she said.

Perhaps, most importantly, she’s in the high school meets for the

love of the competition. Mackey owns four school records and she is a

part of three relay teams that own school-record times.

Mackey’s records are very important to her. She owns school

records in the 200 individual medley (2:02.60), 100 fly (55.87), 100

free (51.49) and 100 back (55.21). Yet the record that is on her mind

the most is the CIF Division I time in the 200 IM (1:58.86), her

friend, Kristen Caverly, the former San Clemente standout.

Caverly, who is now at Stanford, used to swim with Mackey for the

Irvine Aquazots. The two were the poster girls, so to speak, of the

swim club in its early days.

Mackey wants to break the record before she moves on to college.

Mackey said she’s been fortunate enough to visit several colleges

because club meet sites are sometimes at universities. She seems to

have narrowed down her choice of education and competition to USC and

the University of Hawaii.

In the future, Mackey will compete in the in the 200 IM and 400 IM

in the 2004 Olympic Trials in Los Angeles.