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NCAA Women’s Championships: Claire Curzan Breaks 1:50 to Lead 200 Back Prelims; Rhyan White Misses A-Final

Stanford’s Claire Curzan has flown somewhat under the radar at her first NCAA Championships, mostly thanks to record-smashing performances in her first two individual events. Curzan placed fourth in the 100 butterfly final as three swimmers got into the 48-second range while Kate Douglass and Maggie Mac Neil both smashed the NCAA record, and then Curzan took third in the 100 backstroke behind Gretchen Walsh’s NCAA record of 48.26.

But Curzan has posted impressive results in the 200 back all season, including a time of 1:47.43 at the Pac-12 Championships last month that was within three tenths of the fastest time ever and ranks her fourth all-time behind Regan Smith, Beata Nelson and Kathleen Baker. Now, Curzan enters the NCAA final as the favorite after swimming a time of 1:49.48 to win the final heat. Curzan was flying for the first 150 yards, flipping in 1:20.98 with 50 to go, and although she slowed slightly at the end, she comfortably held off Tennessee’s Josephine Fuller to take the win. Fuller ended up touching at 1:50.12 for the third-best time of the morning.

Wisconsin’s Phoebe Bacon was only seeded eighth entering the event after she skipped the event at the Big Ten Championships, but she blasted a time of 1:50.03 to lead the way in the second-to-last heat, and that time was good enough for the second-best time of the morning behind Curzan. Cal’s Isabelle Stadden (1:50.44) and NC State’s Kennedy Noble (1:50.88) also swam 1:50s in that heat, with those times good enough for fourth and fifth overall, respectively.

In the first of the seeded heats, NC State’s Emma Muzzy held off Texas’ Olivia Bray for the win, 1:51.00 to 1:51.18, but behind them, there was a surprising result as Alabama’s Rhyan White fell to third place in 1:52.70. White, the World Championships bronze medalist in the 200-meter back, is the eighth-fastest performer in history at 1:48.06, but she has not approached that form in several years. White ended up qualifying for the B-final in the 15th spot.

Virginia’s Reilly Tiltmann narrowly held off Indiana’s Anna Peplowski in the final heat to earn the last spot in the A-final, 1:51.23 to 1:51.32. Tiltmann joins Bacon, Stadden and Muzzy in returning to the A-final from last season while Stanford’s Lucie Nordmann ended up 14th (1:52.54) and Virginia Tech’s Emma Atkinson fell to a tie for 20th (1:53.21).

Event 16  Women 200 Yard Backstroke==================================================================         NCAA: N 1:47.24  3/23/2019 Beata Nelson, Wisconsin         Meet: M 1:47.24  3/23/2019 Beata Nelson, Wisconsin     American: A 1:47.16  3/10/2019 Regan Smith, Riptide      US Open: O 1:47.16  3/10/2019 Regan Smith, Riptide         Pool: P 1:49.30  11/21/2020Rhyan White, Alabama    Name                 Year School               Seed    Prelims        ==================================================================                      === Preliminaries ===                          1 Curzan, Claire         FR Stanford          1:47.43    1:49.48      r:+0.57  25.75        52.99 (27.24)        1:20.98 (27.99)     1:49.48 (28.50)  2 Bacon, Phoebe          JR Wisconsin         1:51.22    1:50.03      r:+0.63  26.00        53.60 (27.60)        1:21.82 (28.22)     1:50.03 (28.21)  3 Fuller, Josephine      SO Tennessee         1:50.12    1:50.12      r:+0.74  26.15        54.07 (27.92)        1:22.25 (28.18)     1:50.12 (27.87)  4 Stadden, Isabelle      JR California        1:48.75    1:50.44      r:+0.95  25.96        53.87 (27.91)        1:22.47 (28.60)     1:50.44 (27.97)  5 Noble, Kennedy         FR NC State          1:50.24    1:50.88      r:+0.69  26.31        54.52 (28.21)        1:22.76 (28.24)     1:50.88 (28.12)  6 Muzzy, Emma            5Y NC State          1:50.96    1:51.00      r:+0.84  26.35        54.49 (28.14)        1:22.86 (28.37)     1:51.00 (28.14)  7 Bray, Olivia           JR Texas             1:50.09    1:51.18      r:+0.74  26.08        54.49 (28.41)        1:22.97 (28.48)     1:51.18 (28.21)  8 Tiltmann, Reilly       SO Virginia          1:51.05    1:51.23      r:+0.70  26.30        53.84 (27.54)        1:22.02 (28.18)     1:51.23 (29.21) -----------------------------------------------------------------  9 Peplowski, Anna        SO Indiana           1:51.81    1:51.32      r:+0.62  26.07        53.78 (27.71)        1:22.24 (28.46)     1:51.32 (29.08) 10 Lindner, Sophie        5Y UNC               1:53.46    1:51.72      r:+0.79  26.93        54.95 (28.02)        1:23.15 (28.20)     1:51.72 (28.57) 11 Hetrick, Paige         JR Louisville        1:51.70    1:51.84      r:+0.65  26.03        54.12 (28.09)        1:23.05 (28.93)     1:51.84 (28.79) 12 Brooks, Caitlin        SR Kentucky          1:52.38    1:52.35      r:+0.69  26.31        54.38 (28.07)        1:23.06 (28.68)     1:52.35 (29.29) 13 Gorecka, Weronika      SR Akron             1:53.33    1:52.43      r:+0.66  26.62        55.19 (28.57)        1:23.55 (28.36)     1:52.43 (28.88) 14 Nordmann, Lucie        SR Stanford          1:53.70    1:52.54      r:+0.71  25.96        54.09 (28.13)        1:22.98 (28.89)     1:52.54 (29.56) 15 White, Rhyan           5Y Alabama           1:51.53    1:52.70      r:+0.76  26.42        54.77 (28.35)        1:23.88 (29.11)     1:52.70 (28.82) 16 Bentz, Caroline        JR VT                1:53.78    1:52.76      r:+0.80  26.53        54.80 (28.27)        1:23.57 (28.77)     1:52.76 (29.19)

Everything was lined up for Josephine Decker. Two years after breaking through on the art-house circuit with Madeline’s Madeline, the Park Cities native was ready for something bigger.

The filmmaker’s latest project, a haunting portrait of famed but troubled author Shirley Jackson, starring Elisabeth Moss, had garnered acclaim on the festival circuit and was primed for a theatrical release this spring.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted distributor NEON to pivot the release exclusively to digital platforms. While some directors might view that move as a consolation prize, however, Decker enthusiastically gave her blessing.

“I was excited about doing an unconventional release during this time when people are seeking connection through entertainment,” Decker said. “I love going to the cinema and connecting with work there, but I’ve grown up in such an indie-film world that I’ve never made movies that were playing in [wide release]. When you’re one of the first films to come out this way, it’s a story.”

The film is an intimate glimpse into the artistic process that finds Shirley (Moss) battling mental illness, alcoholism, agoraphobia, and other afflictions while living in Vermont in the 1960s. She’s visited by an aspiring writer (Odessa Young) whose husband (Logan Lerman) has landed a job alongside Shirley’s outspoken professor husband (Michael Stuhlbarg). As the relationship between the two women deepens, it affects Shirley’s work in surprising ways.

“It never felt like a biopic. We’re not trying to tell her entire life story,” Decker said. “I feel really grateful that we got the chance to delve into Shirley’s storytelling the way that we did. She’s such a genius. You cycle through a bunch of different realities when you’re inside of her work.”

Decker said she had just finished reading one of the author’s most famous horror works, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, when she received the screenplay by playwright Sarah Gubbins, which is based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel.

Then Decker spent a year reshaping the script with Gubbins prior to production. By carefully mixing fantasy and reality, she tried to strike a balance between Shirley’s unsympathetic nature and viewers’ need for an emotional entry point.

“We wanted to make the film feel more like a Shirley Jackson story,” Decker said. “There’s definitely a coldness to her. She’s a character who creates a lot of distance around her, so we have these moments where we could feel her writing and feel more connected to Shirley, and feel that we were going through something with her.”

During a time when people are watching more movies at home than ever before, Decker is confident Shirley can find an audience. She hopes the film prompts a resurgence in the popularity of Jackson’s books, too.

“I hope that connecting to Shirley’s story of being locked up in her house is something that, to some degree, a lot of people can relate to,” Decker said. “The house and the people in it, she finds a whole world to explore that unlocks her. Maybe similarly, something will come unlocked for the viewers of our film, and also connect them to her writing. If you really want to leave your body, go into a Shirley Jackson story.”

Cameron Brooks served as Josephine's volunteer fire chief for 15 years before an illness flipped his life upside down.

Payton Potter, Patch Staff

|Updated Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 6:52 pm CT

JOSEPHINE, TX — Cameron Brooks's face is well known in the town of Josephine, which sits some 40 miles to Dallas' northeast. Having served as fire chief in the rural town for 15 years, Cameron, who goes by Cam, has interacted with nearly every resident of the town, be it through his duties as volunteer fire chief or one of the many annual events the department puts on for the town.

But since January 2018 his usual presence has been missing from the steel building on W. Hubbard Street that houses the fire department.

Cam was diagnosed with a serious liver condition only 10 days after Christmas and, in the four months since that date, everything has changed.

Find out what's happening in Dallaswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Foundations

Cam joined the fire department 15 years ago, when the department's meager equipment still sat in a shabby quonset hut. Since that time, and under his leadership, the department has grown to include some 23 volunteer firefighters, two brush trucks and a fire engine.

Find out what's happening in Dallaswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Cam, like the many other men and women who work for the Josephine VFD, wasn't paid for his duties with the department.

Patti Brooks, Cam's sister-in-law and Josephine's city secretary, has known Cam for more than 10 years.

She was already working for the city when he came on as the department's chief, long before the transformation that made the department what it is today.

"Cam turned this fire department around, got it reorganized, got the reputation back," Patti told Patch. "He was just a huge part of making this fire department what it is."

But Patti's story with Cam is more than a friendship formed at work. Ask any member of the Brooks family, and they can all tell the same story of the night Cam and his wife, Julie, introduced Patti to her now-husband, Andy.

Cam said his brother Andy was recently divorced when he got the idea to set him with Patti. So he and Julie met Patti and Andy at The Lone Star Roadhouse, a cafe and bar in Dallas, where they saw a live band.

"They hit it off real well," Cam told Patch. "The very first night, it was kind of like a set up because my brother was coming off a divorce. They hit it off that night and had a blast. Next thing I know, they were getting married not too long after that."

Patti's rendition of the story echoes that of Cam's.

"They took Andy and I out to see [a band at] The Lone Star," she said. "We went out with Cam and Julie, and the rest is history. But even before I met Andy, I always loved Cam."

It never mattered to Cam that he wasn't receiving a paycheck from the fire department, but he still had to make ends meet for his family.

So, through the years, Cam has worked for Collin County Animal Services and Julie for the local school district, Community ISD, as a bus monitor.

The Resignation

Cam resigned from the department only days before his eventual diagnosis but after months of watching his own health decline.

"Well before January, he was run down and didn't feel good and didn't want to do a lot of stuff," Julie said of Cam's health. "He'd rather just sit there and watch TV or hang around the house. I thought that was unusual."

His lethargy, they assumed, was a symptom of the type two diabetes he had been living with for years. But as his symptoms continued to worsen, he broke down and decided it was time to see a doctor.

"He started kind of changing," Julie said. "And finally, I believe it was Jan. 2 or 3, he said, 'okay you can call the doctor.' That's when it all started."

It was three days later that Cam learned he had a serious liver condition. The disease, Cam said, occurs randomly and causes the liver to fail and rot.

"It's pretty much just something that happened. Basically I pulled the short straw," he said.

Resigning from the department is not something Cam took lightly, and it's something he still seems to mourn.

In his interview with Patch, Cam specified, without being prompted, that, "I couldn't have asked for a better city [in which] to be a fire chief... I had to leave because of my health issues. I'm in real bad shape."

Not only did he leave behind his duties with the fire department, but he and Julie also moved away from Josephine entirely.

Cam said he knows a medical emergency can happen at any time, and he can't risk being taken to the wrong hospital in his condition.

Because he sees a specialty team of liver doctors in Richardson, he asked emergency responders in Josephine if they could take him to that specific hospital.

The ambulance service told Cam no, they could only take him to Hunt County Medical Center in Greenville.

So he and Julie made a preemptive move to live with their youngest daughter in Wylie, where ambulances can easily take him to Richardson.

Julie said the move has helped in more ways than one, and she now relies on the support of her daughter.

"I was really worried about us being by ourselves and everything," she said. "After the second [hospital stay], we went to our other daughter's for a while. That was a relief because there was somebody there to help me. Then we came [to Melanie's]. We have our own room. Cam can stay in there and watch TV; he can come in here and talk to the grandkids. He has a place to go and be alone if he needs to be."

Her daughter's support, Julie said, extends beyond physically helping care for Cam.

"It's been — I guess — a blessing to have her back me up any time I need the help — the support or whatever. Physically, mentally, emotionally — they're there. Our kids are awesome."

The Treatment

Cam visits regularly with his team of doctors, who are working now on securing his spot on a transplant list.

He has already undergone a psychological evaluation, but he still faces a series of tests he must undergo before he'll know if he has secured a spot on the waiting list.

In the meantime, he makes biweekly visits to have extra fluid drained from his abdomen. During his last visit, he said, doctors drained more than 18 pounds of excess fluid from his stomach.

He hopes to receive an affirmative answer about the transplant list by the end of April, but, even if the answer is yes, he'll have to wait for a compatible liver to come his way.

Once Cam receives his new liver, he'll be out of work for at least four months, Julie said. In that time, the Brooks family will be left to pay for insurance out of pocket in addition to covering other medical expenses.

That's why a friend of Cam created a GoFundMe page to help the family cover costs. (You can give to the GoFundMe page here.)

In the meantime, Julie is pleading for others to become organ donors.

"We really want people to know that donating your organs is amazing," she said. "I've been a donor for years."

Back Home

One of Cam and Julie's daughters lives in Josephine, and the couple visit her when they can. Julie said she often sees her daughter between shifts at the school. And while she's happy to see the friendly faces of Josephine, she said she isn't ready to visit the city hall or fire department where Cam once worked.

"We don't go back to the fire department or city hall because it hurts," Julie said, her voice cracking with emotion. "Yesterday I stopped at the store to get a drink and — I'm sorry — we miss everybody and it hurts because we know it's not ours anymore. It's not our reality anymore. The same people are there and hanging out on the sidewalks and stuff like that, but it doesn't feel the same."

Julie said she is doing her best to stay strong for Cam, even as illness shakes the family.

"I haven't broke down and cried like I feel like I need to. I feel like if I let myself do that, I'm partially giving up on him. And I'll never give up on him. Never... He's an awesome man."

Lead image via GoFundM

Donnie Walker, U.S. history teacher at Wheatley High School in the Houston Independent School District (HISD), has a family legacy at the school. His grandparents went to Wheatley. His great-aunt graduated from the same class as Barbara Jordan, the first southern Black woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. His father and mother met at Wheatley.

Since Walker joined Wheatley’s teaching staff in 2019, the school has been at the center of a political power play by the state that resulted in an announcement by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) last week that they are seizing control of the largest school district in Texas.

Since 2019, Wheatley High School teachers and administrators have weathered a pandemic, all while improving their students’ academic performance, receiving a C state accountability rating last year. HISD earned an overall B rating with a score higher than 611 other Texas districts, including Dallas.

Still, TEA cites Wheatley’s past failures to meet state standards as reason to disband HISD’s elected school board. By June 1, the agency plans to appoint a new board of managers and superintendent, which could remain in charge for two to six years.

“Since 2019, we’ve been doing a wonderful job at holding our students accountable, the community accountable, parents accountable. Unfortunately, politics come into play, and guess who’s at the forefront of the politics. The State of Texas, Governor [Greg] Abbott, they’re not going to look in the mirror and point the finger at themselves. We’re getting blamed for everything,” Walker said.

Walker said the school has had to address plenty of new challenges since the time his family attended, particularly challenges created by school privatization in the Fifth Ward community.

In 2011 Yes Prep Fifth Ward Secondary School, a charter institution, opened less than 5 miles from Wheatley. Since then, Wheatley has seen its enrollment decline. In 2017, the magnet school Mickey Leland College Preparatory Academy for Young Men also opened in the Fifth Ward.

“You could probably kick a ball in the backyard of Yes Prep and it’ll probably land in our football field,” Walker said.

While magnet schools are still run by public school districts, like charters, they are selective and can draw the highest-performing students away from neighborhood schools, along with the money allotted to those students. Meanwhile, local schools still need to pay for the same fixed costs of operating schools, such as building maintenance.

Wheatley

Public High School

Yes

Prep Fifth Ward Charter School

Mickey

Leland College Prep Magnet School

Wheatley Public High School

Yes Prep Fifth Ward Charter School

Mickey Leland College Prep Magnet School

Chart: Created by Josephine Lee for The Texas Observer Source: Texas Education Agency Get the data Created with Datawrapper

Unlike charter schools, as a neighborhood public school Wheatley is held accountable by federal laws to enroll and educate all students in the neighborhood, no matter their background. Wheatley educates more students receiving special education services, more students in the ESL program, and more students identified as at-risk than nearby private or charter schools.

“A lot of parents have this notion that Wheatley is already a school [with] issues, and what they do is place their children into these independent charter schools,” Walker said, thus siphoning off potential Wheatley students.

When students get kicked out of neighboring charter schools for disciplinary issues, Walker said, they often come to Wheatley, where teachers “rebuild them and prep them for life. We do all the things that these other schools failed to do for these students. They just get rid of them.”

In 2019, more charter school districts than public school districts received an F accountability rating from the TEA. That year, HISD received an overall B rating, but TEA threatened the district with school closures and a state takeover. In a November 2019 audit of HISD, which the state released a few days after announcing its plans to take over the district, the state recommended closing or consolidating 39 HISD school campuses deemed “underutilized.” Like Wheatley, these schools have experienced declining enrollment due to proliferating charter schools in Houston’s low-income communities.

Chart: Josephine Lee for The Texas Observer Source: Analysis of Texas Education Agency data by Patti Everitt Get the data Created with Datawrapper

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath told Houston’s KHOU in a TV interview that he is not ordering any schools in the district to be closed, saying that the law stipulates a choice between state-appointed managers and school closures during a state takeover.

But community leaders are concerned that the state takeover will replace schools in low-income Black and brown communities with charter schools, which will not serve all students in the neighborhood. The Greater Houston Coalition of Justice, consisting of more than two dozen civil rights groups, filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights last Friday.

TEA did not respond to the Observer’s inquiry into whether the agency plans to turn some HISD schools into charter schools.

In a press conference last Wednesday, Bishop James Dixon II, pastor of the Community of Faith Church and president of the Houston NAACP, questioned why the state is targeting HISD when other districts received lower accountability ratings.

“If academic achievement and financial management are the measures by which TEA determines whether a school is desirable, then what is it that the government hasn’t told the public that’s really driving this action?” Dixon said. “Why HISD? Does it have to do with the fact that we are majority brown and Black? Does it have to do with an economic agenda that is designed to close our schools and privatize our schools?”

Walker says that any plans to turn more schools into charters will only deepen existing inequalities in Houston’s communities.

“Charter schools have a right to turn their backs on kids and a part of the community. And if we start on that train and kick kids out and don’t cater to their academic needs, their social needs, these kids will be left behind in society,” Walker said.

He plans to stick around to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“Let’s prove everybody wrong and show that we are taking care of business. So the teachers at Wheatley are still pushing forward strongly to continue the legacy of doing positive things in our community, and continue the progress we’ve made since 2019.”

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Josephine Lee is Texas Observer's 2023 David McHam Investigative Reporting Fellow. She has previously worked as an educator and community organizer. Her reporting on labor, environment, politics, and education has been featured on Salon, Daily Beast, Truthout, and other outlets. She was raised in and lives in Houston.