Young Swimmer Makes Impact on Crimson Team

Sophie Pettengill flailed her arms through the water as she crawled her way across Blodgett Pool. She began to slow, and her teammates yelled out encouragements from the deck. In response, she lifted her head out of the water, nodded, and began to thrash through the water with renewed resolve.

When all was said and done, Sophie had completed her first collegiate race at an age before which most girls learn how to swim. But the 25-yard sprint at Harvard’s intrasquad swimming and diving meet two weeks ago was a relatively minor task for a five-year-old who has defeated cancer.

Sophie, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in April 2010, became the youngest member of the Harvard women’s swimming and diving team this year through Team IMPACT—a New England-based non-profit that matches collegiate athletic programs with children battling life-threatening illnesses. Now hoping to achieve long-term remission after her doctors declared her cancer-free in June, the toddler from Concord, Mass., will follow the Crimson throughout its season.

THE WILL TO SWIM

Since her diagnosis, Sophie has had 25 serious medical procedures under sedation, including intrathecal chemotherapy and bone marrow aspirations. Through the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, she followed an aggressive, 25-month chemotherapy and steroid regimen that concluded this summer.

Yet in the midst of intense treatment, Sophie possessed a stubborn determination to learn how to swim.

“Sophie’s extremely competitive. She has been since the moment she was born,” said Sophie’s mother Julia Pettengill, who swam competitively through high school as a German native growing up in Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. “She’s very driven, very physical…. Shumba [which is Shona for lion cub] has been her nickname through treatment because she was so resilient, courageous, feisty, and strong.”

During the summer of 2011, the three-year-old Sophie, still bald and swollen from her medication, set her sights on making the swim team for which her older sister Ava swam. Pettengill considered swimming an important skill for her children to learn, but she worried at first that Sophie would over-exert herself. She and her husband Mark emphasized to Sophie that she did not need to learn how to swim so soon. Their little Shumba, however, kept jumping in the pool.

In June 2012, a bone marrow test revealed that Sophie was free of any trace of leukemia. The happy news in many respects signaled a return to normalcy for the Pettengills. That same summer, Sophie tried out for her sister’s swim team.

Still very young for a competitive swimmer, Sophie could not quite swim the required two lengths of the pool to make the team.

But the same day that Sophie learned that she would not be on her sister’s team, the Pettengills received a call from Team IMPACT. Harvard swimming was ready to offer Sophie a spot.

A TEAM FOR SOPHIE

Founded in May 2011, Team IMPACT has created a network of hundreds of college athletic programs across the Northeast. Men’s soccer was the first Harvard team to “draft” a child, and the Crimson’s baseball, softball and men’s hockey teams are involved in a similar non-profit, Friends of Jaclyn, which finds collegiate teams for children battling brain tumors.

With the help of junior men’s soccer midfielder Kevin Harrington, junior swimmer Deirdre Clute communicated with the Pettengills and Team IMPACT over the summer. In September, Clute organized a leadership committee of three swimmers from each class to host a draft day for Sophie to welcome her onto the team.

During the draft day, Clute became worried at first as the wide-eyed little girl remained reticent as the swimmers talked to her about the team. Then, Sophie suddenly came out of her shell.

“She starts telling us about her Halloween costume and what her sister got for her birthday, and just really opened up,” Clute said. “She’s a very outgoing girl, probably because all she’s gone through.”

Weeks later, Sophie attended the Crimson’s preseason intrasquad meet. She raced her 25 yards during a heat of the 50-yard freestyle. After nervously grasping the hand of Crimson coach Stephanie Morawski '92 as she stood on the starting blocks, Sophie plopped into the pool feet-first and churned through the water.

“I was not expecting it,” Clute said of Sophie’s swim. “She came up to me when she walked in [to the pool], and she goes, ‘I’ve been practicing all week for this. I’m so excited to swim with the team.’ And then she killed it. I thought [my teammates and I] were going to have to jump in and help her, but she got to the other end of the pool all by herself.”

Sophie and her fellow swimmers celebrated a successful day at the races with a well-earned team dinner at the Eliot D-hall.

INSPIRATION AT THE DUAL MEET

On Saturday, Sophie returned to Blodgett once more as the Crimson hosted Columbia in its dual meet home opener. She skipped across the white tiles as she arrived on deck during warm-ups, proudly sporting her black Harvard Swimming jacket. Clute and sophomore Courtney Otto hopped out of the pool to say hello, and Sophie showed them a paper turkey that she had made at preschool.

“[Sophie] just adores [Clute] and [Otto],” Pettengill said. “She says she wants to be just like them when she grows up.”

When Sophie arrived at the team locker room, she found a “Happy Birthday” banner strung across her locker as she received a cupcake, a card, and a special happy birthday song from her Harvard teammates.

“Today, today, today, today, today is somebody’s birthday. Not the pickle, not the pear. Not the elephant, not the bear. Today, today, today, today, today is Sophie’s birthday.”

Sophie had turned five years old two days before the meet. Just two and a half years ago, such a milestone may have seemed out of reach.

As Harvard marched out of the locker room with Sophie for the beginning of the competition, Sophie became overwhelmed by the loud cheering and excitement surrounding her first college dual meet. She quickly buried herself in her mother’s arms during the pre-meet introductions.

By the end of the meet, however, Sophie had acquiesced to the strange NCAA meet environment. During the last event, the 4x100 freestyle relay, Sophie energetically bounced up and down behind lane one, cheering on her teammates as she absorbed the splashes of their flip turns. At one point, she swung her arms as if to imitate a relay start. She was the Crimson D relay’s fifth woman.

“She feels so much a part of this team,” Pettengill said. “I knew that it would be very positive for her to have this kind of mentorship with these amazing young and inspiring women and be part of something bigger than herself as a member of this team, but it’s exceeded every expectation that I’ve had.”

And the college swimmers have perhaps learned just as much from Sophie.

“It’s very inspiring for me and the rest of my teammates as well to see somebody like Sophie,” Otto said. “Before having a bad day, we realize that Sophie’s days have been a hundred times worse with everything that she’s had to go through, but she still has a smile on her face and is able to live life to the fullest.”

Sophie glowed as she high-fived Harvard teammates and Columbia competitors after the 187-113 Crimson victory. Maybe, years from now, she will be in a similar handshake line after swimming a longer college race—perhaps a 400-yard I.M. or a 1000-yard freestyle. Maybe she will become a highly-touted Class of 2030 recruit, or maybe she will develop some entirely different passion altogether.

But no matter what Sophie’s future may entail, the toughest lap lies behind her.