{"id":284649,"date":"2017-11-19T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-19T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=284649"},"modified":"2018-03-28T07:40:13","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T14:40:13","slug":"after-losing-coach-her-husband-and-daughter-lead-xavier-to-state-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/after-losing-coach-her-husband-and-daughter-lead-xavier-to-state-title\/","title":{"rendered":"After Losing Coach, Her Husband and Daughter Lead Xavier to State Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Rieder.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mia Rankin<\/strong>, a 14-year-old freshman at all-girls Xavier College Prep, was racing for a state title. In the 500 free final at the Arizona Division I girls\u2019 state meet, she was neck-and-neck with\u00a0Chandler High School\u2019s Destiny Kling<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Watching closely on deck was Mia\u2019s father Mark Rankin<\/strong>, who had taken over coaching duties at Xavier just one month earlier under the most tragic of circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurn for turn the whole freaking way,\u201d Mark said. \u201cMia had her around the 400, but (the other) girl kept coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Rankin\u00a0had a slight advantage with just 100 yards to go, Kling made her run on the second-to-last 50 and took the lead\u2014by just two hundredths\u2014heading into the last two lengths. Rankin could not run her down. Kling finished in 4:55.75, Rankin in 4:55.93.<\/p>\n

Rankin was annoyed she hadn\u2019t won, but she had swum the race of her life, dropping 12 seconds from her best time. The whole way, she was thinking of only one thing\u2014actually, one person.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The “Her” was Maureen \u201cMo\u201d Rankin<\/strong>, Mia\u2019s mother and Mark\u2019s wife, who had passed away seven weeks earlier after a battle with bladder cancer. Mo had been in her second season as Xavier\u2019s head coach.<\/p>\n

Mia had been swimming for her time and for her team\u2014which was in the hunt for a state championship\u2014but also for something bigger. So were the 18 other girls racing in Xavier caps that Saturday afternoon in Mesa.<\/p>\n

\n

Just this summer, Mo Rankin thought her cancer was gone. She had been first diagnosed in December 2016, and after chemotherapy, doctors gave her a clean bill of health by the summer. But when she did not feel well again in late July, she went in for more tests. The cancer had returned.<\/p>\n

\"maureen-rankin-xavier-trophy\"

Mo Rankin coaching Xavier in 2016 — Photo Courtesy: Mark Rankin<\/p><\/div>\n

As the high school season began in early August, Mo was on deck regularly at Xavier\u2019s practices. The school had hired her full-time to work in the finance department, but treatment\u2014radiation and immunotherapy\u2014diminished her ability to function.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe therapy kind of hit her pretty hard,\u201d Mark said. \u201cShe was mostly there on deck, but she had to get away from her day job. This was early August. She was maintaining for a little while, coaching the workouts, but she was starting to really not feel good at all\u2014having trouble getting out of bed, really sore.\u201d<\/p>\n

As August turned to September and Mo became weaker, she ended up sending workouts to her assistant, Jen<\/strong> James<\/strong>, to relay to the girls on the team. But on Sept. 19, as Mo\u2019s condition worsened, Mark was forced to take her into the hospital.<\/p>\n

She would never make it out. Mo Rankin died early Monday morning, Sept. 25, leaving behind Mark, Mia and an 11-year-old son, Luke<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

At that point, her high school team was without a coach. Mark, who like Mo had previously coached age group, senior and masters at Phoenix Swim Club, took over Mo\u2019s duties of sending in workouts shortly before her death. \u201cMo and I are similar coaches,\u201d Mark said.<\/p>\n

Right around the time she died, Mark started coming to as many of the meets\u2014particularly weekend invitationals\u2014as he could, and he even dropped by some practices while maintaining his full-time job in sales. But Xavier athletic director Lynn Winsor<\/strong> wanted Mark to assume more regular coaching duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cSister Lynn was being very cool. \u2018Can you come on?\u2019 \u2018No, but I\u2019ll help as much as I can.\u2019 Coach Jen was like, \u2018Yeah, we can make this work. Let\u2019s not bring anyone else in.\u2019 I started getting there when I could,\u201d Mark explained.<\/p>\n

With two weeks to go before State meet, Mark blocked off his afternoons to coach at Xavier. After acquainting himself with the girls on the team, he realized that this group had potential to accomplish something special, and he wanted to see it through<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew we had a good chance of winning State this year,\u201d Mark said. \u201cWe kept beating all these teams that were whooping on us last year. We had a hell of a freshman group.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The once-dominant Xavier Gators had won 26 State titles in their history, including 14 in a row from 1999 to 2012. But they had not won since, and in Mo\u2019s first year coaching, the team had finished fourth at the Division I girls\u2019 State meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kept planting it in their heads: \u2018You guys are looking good. We\u2019re beating these teams,\u2019\u201d Mark said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t for sure, but I knew we were going to be right in it. It just slowly, clearly kind of became more obvious that we were definitely in the hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

When Mo started feeling sick again in July, she and her family had been in Oregon while Mia swam in her first-ever senior Sectionals. Just 13 at the time and representing Phoenix Swim Club, she dropped five seconds in her 200 breast and six in the 400 IM to earn her first cuts for Winter Junior Nationals.<\/p>\n

\"mia-rankin-mark-rankin-arizona-state-meet\"

Mia and Mark Rankin at Arizona High School State Championships — Photo Courtesy: Mark Rankin<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s just very driven. She thinks she\u2019s going to be there. She thinks she\u2019s got a hell of a shot,\u201d Mark said. \u201cYeah, she thinks she\u2019s going to be an Olympian and has had that belief for a couple years now. I remember having that belief, but I never talked about it like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark\u2019s twin brother Matt<\/strong> had just missed making the U.S. Olympic team in 1988\u2014he was fourth in both the 200 IM and 400 IM at Olympic Trials, missing the top two in the 400 IM by just 55 hundredths\u2014and Mo was a nine-time all-American at the University of Arizona. Elite-level swimming runs in the family.<\/p>\n

And after she lost her mother, swimming was Mia\u2019s refuge.<\/p>\n

She woke up on a Monday morning to find Mark had come home from the hospital to deliver the news. At 3:30 that afternoon, she was at Phoenix Swim Club for practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwimming makes me feel better. All my friends were there,\u201d Mia said, before recalling that it had been an especially hard practice that afternoon. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to not think about (what happened) when I\u2019m swimming because I\u2019m too busy focusing on, \u2018This hurts.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI think she just doesn\u2019t want anything to interfere with what she wants to accomplish, even something like that,\u201d Mark added.<\/p>\n

\"coach-mo-board-phoenix-swim-club\"

Photo Courtesy: David Rieder<\/p><\/div>\n

The club put up a poster reading \u201cWe love you, Coach Mo,\u201d and swimmers who knew her could write messages on sticky notes and paste them onto the board. Within a day, there were more than 100 notes.<\/p>\n

Being surrounded by tributes to a lost parent could easily be too much for a grieving teenager to take, and indeed, Mia\u2019s brother Luke still has trouble going to school or to practice without being painfully reminded of what happened. But for Mia, getting back to a sport where she had so much connection with her mother was comforting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a reminder, but it was also a good reminder. Every time I think about racing, I think about her and how she would want me to go fast, and it helped a lot,\u201d Mia said.<\/p>\n

At State meet, Mia would swim the 200 IM and the 500 free\u2014her mom\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer mom had been state champion four years in a row in the 500,\u201d Mark said. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure she was aware of that. I didn\u2019t talk about it\u2014I think she and her mom talked about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Mia\u2019s connection to swimming is far thicker than just blood, as Mark saw first-hand during a pre-meet warm-up at Xavier\u2019s pool the day of the State meet prelims.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just remember her smiling and laying on the lane line, talking with her buddies in that warm-up,\u201d Mark said. \u201cNot talking to me, kind of talking to the girls around her. \u2018I love swimming. I love swimming.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"nomocancer-bracelet\"

Photo Courtesy: David Rieder<\/p><\/div>\n

The team showed up at State wearing wristbands honoring their head coach. They read: \u201cXCP Swim and Dive\u201d on one side and \u201c#NoMoCancer\u201d on the other. As they fought for a State title, they did it for her.<\/p>\n

Entering the finals session, Mark was optimistic but cautiously so. In prelims, the team had set itself to finish considerably\u2014but not comfortably\u2014ahead of Chandler High School in the standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother coach was like, \u2018The Chandler coach has already conceded it to you,\u2019\u201d Mark said. \u201cI was like, \u2018How can you say that? What if you get a 40-point relay DQ?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, nothing of the sort happened. The girls won the 200 medley relay to open the meet, and then in the second individual event, Xavier senior Katie McCoy<\/strong> won the 200 IM while Mia finished third. After Mia\u2019s stellar swim in the 500 free, Xavier picked up another win in the 200 free relay. Mark started doing the math.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had two breaststrokers\u2014they had one. We had two backstrokers\u2014they had one,\u201d Mark said. \u201cAnd I knew we were going to get first or second in the relay.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCoy then won her second event of the day in the 100 back, and fellow senior Mary<\/strong> Roediger<\/strong>, who had earlier finished third in the 50 free, added a runner-up finish in the 100 breast. Xavier could not complete the relay sweep, coming up nine hundredths behind Chandler in the 400 free relay, but it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

Xavier scored 321 points, 58 more than runner-up Chandler High School. They were State champions.<\/p>\n

Mark knew what was coming, but the announcement of the Xavier girls as state champions was still surreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of emotions coming over because it wasn\u2019t for me\u2014it was, you know, kind of for her,\u201d Mark said, referring to Mo. He choked up but kept talking as he cried.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hit home pretty good. My parents were there, and my sister had come down to see Mia race. It wasn\u2019t about me at all. I was so ecstatic that I got to be a part of it, but it was her team. I was just ecstatic that I got to finish it off for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark found the girls who had swum on the final relay, including Mia. The letdown of being out-touched quickly melted away.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty amazing feeling,\u201d Mark said. \u201cJust the smiles told it all. And the tears\u2014lots of tears. Happy tears, but, you know. Yeah. Pretty amazing moment.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"xavier-team-celebrates-winning-state\"

Mark Rankin and the Xavier girls celebrate a State title — Photo Courtesy: Mark Rankin<\/p><\/div>\n

During the meet, the coaches had received flyers to vote for the top male and female performers of the meet and for coach of the year. Mark wanted to vote for James\u2014Mo’s assistant\u2014but she balked.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s like, \u2018Mo said last year we can never vote for ourselves.\u2019 I said, \u2018I don\u2019t know anyone else, and there\u2019s no one else I would want to vote for,\u2019\u201d Mark recalled.<\/p>\n

Mark forgot about the voting for the rest of the meet, and he\u2019s still not sure if James even turned in Xavier\u2019s ballot. But after team scores were announced, he was called up to accept coach of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey called him up, and that\u2019s when I started crying, and then everyone started crying,\u201d Mia said. \u201cWe were all just crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark accepted the award with a heavy heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like it was for her. It wasn\u2019t for me,\u201d Mark said. \u201cI just was glad I got to help and keep the girls together and in a good place. It was great. Totally unexpected. I didn\u2019t really feel like it was mine. It was the team\u2019s. It was Mo\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt ended up at the right house,\u201d he added, cracking a smile.<\/p>\n

Mark is interested in coming back to Xavier as the coach for the full season next year, and he\u2019s already started looking ahead to how the team will shape up after seniors graduate and new freshman come in. Xavier will get a challenge from Chaparral, a Division II powerhouse moving up to Division I.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to be worried,\u201d Mark said. \u201cI\u2019ve already started looking at what we have and what they have. We might not win, but it\u2019s going to be a battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

But whatever Mark decides about his coaching future, he will always cherish the time that, under the most tragic of circumstances, he took over his wife\u2019s team and finished her job of leading a group of girls to a state championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was blessed to be a part of that,\u201d Mark said. \u201cVery blessed. Those girls won\u2019t forget that. They\u2019ll always remember that year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Rieder. Mia Rankin, a 14-year-old freshman at all-girls Xavier College Prep, was racing for a state title. In the 500 free final at the Arizona Division I girls\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":284743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,17,8,61052],"tags":[64389,66975,8406,25272,64695,9533,37141,64693,64694,60127,445,64692,64696],"class_list":["post-284649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-commentary","category-high-school","category-morning-splash","tag-2017-arizona-high-school-state-championships","tag-arizona-high-school-swimming","tag-chandler-high-school","tag-david-rieder","tag-jen-james","tag-mark-rankin","tag-maureen-rankin","tag-mia-rankin","tag-mo-rankin","tag-morning-splash","tag-phoenix-swim-club","tag-xavier-college-prep","tag-xavier-gators"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nAfter 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