From his hospital bed, Patrick Lersch mustered up the courage to hit send.
A bout with appendicitis had thrown a wrench in Lersch's holiday plans, forcing him to craft a text message that made his already-sore stomach flutter.
The senior sprinter told his GW swimming and diving teammates via their group text chain that he wouldn't be with them to start winter training.
With championship season on the horizon, Lersch promised them he'd do everything he could to get back as quickly as possible.
"I was scared because I didn't want to let the team down," said Lersch, who sent the note perhaps an hour after waking from his appendectomy on Dec. 26. "I was worried about not being able to compete at A-10s and not being able to help my team to another victory."
Lersch has kept his word, persevering through the speed bump to regain his form in time for this week's Atlantic 10 Championships.
Lersch missed almost two weeks of practice during a key part of the season, leaving him lagging behind the rest of the Colonials upon his return to the pool. The Pittsburgh native has endured a rough couple of months – physically and emotionally – to get back on track and in position to help the Colonials chase a third straight conference crown.
It was Lersch's months-long drive to make his senior season his best one yet that allowed him to bounce back like that, according to head coach Brian Thomas.
"That's why we do all that hard work – because you never know what can happen," Thomas said. "It's unfortunate, certainly, that he had to deal with this, but he was probably in the best position of anybody that we have to have that happen to him." Lersch has helped the Colonials win back-to-back A-10 titles.
Lersch has carried that mindset since finishing his junior season with a career-best performance at the A-10 meet to help the Colonials earn a repeat crown in dominant fashion. He scored for the first time as an individual in 2018, highlighted by a win in the B final of the 100-yard freestyle in a career-best time of 45.01 seconds.
Lersch knew with the graduation of NCAA qualifier Gustav Hokfelt the rest of the returning group would have to step up to help fill the void. He wanted to do his part to make sure the Colonials close out his collegiate career in style.
"For me, (a third title) would mean everything, to be honest," said Lersch, who was part of a group that finished fifth in 2016. "It would be a bit of validation of who we are as a team and show how far we've really come."
Back in Pennsylvania for summer break, Lersch cleared a late arrival with his internship supervisor to allow the Mechanical Engineering major to spend his mornings in the pool training under the direction of his father Charles, a veteran club coach.
That extra work paid dividends when he returned to Foggy Bottom. Lersch repeatedly posted the best fall times of his career, culminating in the Queens University Fall Frenzy where he qualified for the A final in all three of his events and paced the Colonials in the 100 free.
Along the way, his confidence as a vocal leader has grown. With 18 first-years between the men's and women's programs, he's emerged as a reliable source of advice and encouragement.
Thomas trusts Lersch, along with Emily Zhang, to run the start of weekly team meetings on Sunday evenings before study hall. He's earned that job, the first-year coach said.
"Pat's just one who's not afraid to step up and say something that needs to be said," Thomas said. "You need somebody like that."
Lersch's plans for a storybook senior year seemed to be on course. Until they weren't.
He was celebrating Christmas with his grandparents in Florida when he started feeling queasy. He skipped Christmas dinner before enduring a sleepless night. That was when his mother, a nurse, insisted they go to the hospital.
That afternoon, Lersch underwent surgery to remove his appendix.
A flood of supportive messages from his teammates and some soup courtesy of his grandparents helped jumpstart his recovery.
It was exactly eight weeks until the start of the A-10 Championships.
"I decided I wasn't going to let this be the end of my swimming career or define the end of my swimming career in a negative way," Lersch said. "If anything, it's going to make my ending better because of the trial that I had to overcome." Lersch (right) and Alexander Auster are among seven seniors on the men's side.
A couple days later, GW dove into its intensive winter training without one of its leaders. It's an important time in the season when the Colonials can fix their focus on the pool before the spring semester begins.
"You could feel his absence in the team," classmate Tommi Wolst said. "There was definitely a voice missing."
Some complications delayed Lersch's return to the pool, and the early results dampened his spirit.
At the beginning, he struggled to swim 1,000 yards in a workout when the other Colonials were tackling 6,000-10,000 daily. Even completing the warmup presented a tall order.
Lersch thought his stroke seemed fine, yet his teammates zoomed by him as he pushed through the pain in his abdomen.
"That feeling of not feeling normal and wondering if you're ever going to get back to that can be really daunting," Lersch said. "I struggled with that a lot of days, thinking that I wouldn't be prepared for A-10s."
Thomas did what he could to help, setting a daily reminder in his phone to send Lersch a text message with the positive vibes the coach knew his senior leader needed.
"It's one of those things where you're going to feel terrible, but you need to move through that and not let it impact you emotionally and keep pressing forward," Thomas said. "And he did that."
During his recovery, Lersch missed the final two dual meets of his career. Still, he was on deck at Georgetown and Virginia Tech last month, cheering as loud as anyone and dishing out pointers where he could. His teammates wouldn't have expected anything else.
"I think he's a great embodiment of what our team stands for," Wolst said. "It doesn't matter where you are in terms of performance. What matters most is how invested you are in the team."
Lersch said he turned the corner about three weeks ago. That's when he was able to dive into the water for the first time since his surgery and begin drilling the mechanics of racing again.
He's feeling strong in the water and keeping up with the Buff and Blue's top sprinters.
For Lersch, the goals haven't changed, even if he had to take a detour on the road to these A-10 Championships. He's excited to test himself one more time against the conference's best, eager to give everything he's got for the teammates and coaches who gave him a boost when he needed it most.
"Honestly, having the surgery was kind of a blessing," Lersch said. "It made me slow down and appreciate where I am and who I swim with and who I swim for. It's really made me stop and look at each day as the gift it is getting to come in here and do something I love with the people I love."
