As Mark’s swim coach at Wheaton I remember him very vividly.  He certainly looked to me like a California native when he joined the team in his freshman year.  Mark did not have much experience as a competitive swimmer in high school.  However, as a California kid, his love of surfing had prepared him very well for this new competitive venture and he improved very dramatically in his only year on the Wheaton swim team.  Mark became quite a versatile freestyler that year, recording a 49.76 relay split in the sprint 100 free as well as logging a 5:09.84 in the 500 distance.  He scored for Wheaton at the Conference championships that season in both the 50 and 100 Freestyles as well as the 100 Fly.  Had he continued in the sport at Wheaton, I have no doubt that he would have been a national qualifier at some point in time.

I considered Mark to be a very spirited team member as a frosh and am glad to see from reading his blog that his spirit continued to be a defining characteristic of his life and that he represented Christ in his life.