They spend their lives trying to beat time. It's the measure of how they judge themselves as swimmers. Every swimming practice session and every meet is timed to the minute, second and hundredths of seconds. This season, Vanessa McElwee's race against time took on a whole new meaning.

Eighteen months ago the Mansfield University freshman was diagnosed with skin cancer. She'd noticed a mole on the top of her right ear and just days after being diagnosed with melanoma she underwent surgery to remove part of her ear.

While melanoma is an all too common form of cancer, it's unusual in someone as young as McElwee. It's more often associated with years of exposure to the sun, striking more often in middle age.

McElwee's life revolved around water. A standout swimmer at Souderton High School, she spent her summer months as a lifeguard at the local community pool. Her skin cancer might well change that lifestyle forever.

As she prepared to enroll at Mansfield this past summer, McElwee needed to undergo another surgery to graft skin to her ear. The good news was they had gotten all the cancer and it did not spread to her lymph system. The bad news was that the operation and recovery time might have forced her to miss swimming her freshman season.

Mansfield University swimming coach Danita Fox was doubtful McElwee would be able to compete. "We really didn't know if Vanessa would be able to swim," said Fox. "She had to get cleared by her doctors and even the best case scenario would have her missing the first half of the season. We were so certain she would have to red-shirt she didn't even get her picture taken during preseason picture day."

McElwee had a decision to make. She knew if she missed the season, she might never get back into the pool. But, the perky McElwee explained, "I came to Mansfield on a scholarship. I had accepted a scholarship to swim and decided I had made a commitment to the program and needed to follow through with that commitment."

She was finally cleared six weeks into preseason workouts and swam for the first time competitively against Bloomsburg in the Mountaineers' third meet of the season. Her time in her specialty, the 100 backstroke, was 1:08.26. That wasn't even close to what it was during her outstanding high school career, but at least she was back in the water. She swam again in the Mountaineers' next meet, improving her time by a second. She was still a long way away from qualifying for the ultimate goal of earning a berth in the PSAC Championship at the end of the season.

But after spending winter break training with the team in Puerto Rico, McElwee began improving and her confidence rose. She believed she actually had a chance to meet the qualifying time for the conference championship.

It all came down the last meet of the season at East Stroudsburg. Also known as the "last chance meet," it's designed to give swimmers one last opportunity to qualify for the national or PSAC Championships.

McElwee was ready but she faced a huge obstacle: she was the only swimmer trying to qualify in 100 backstroke. Swimming by herself, with no others to push her and set a pace, made the challenge even greater.

Finally, East Stroudsburg senior Natalie Weingartner, who had already qualified earlier in the season, volunteered to swim with her and provide a pace. To qualify, McElwee needed to a 1:04.52 time, four seconds better than the time she posted in her first meet.

Everyone in the pool area knew McElwee's story. Four teams were competing and the stands were filled with parents and fans.

Everyone's attention was riveted on the McElwee as the starting gun sounded. Weingartner set a strong pace and McElwee kept up with her. The building shook with screams of encouragement as they made the turn and headed to the finish.

McElwee hit the touch pad and every eye in the building turned to the scoreboard. There was a pause as the crowd waited. Finally the time flashed on -- 1:04.53. McElwee had missed qualifying by a hundredth of a second.

For a moment, no one spoke. The pool area was stone silent. Weingartner broke the silence by hugging McElwee in the water and said "let's do it again. You were so close." But it's not called the "last chance meet" for nothing. There would be no more chance for McElwee.

She climbed out of the pool and walked past her teammates to the locker room. There she collapsed on the floor and cried. She began sobbing. Tears fell onto the already wet floor as the hopes, fears and frustrations of the last 18 months poured out.

She asked herself how could life be this unfair. She had worked so hard and overcome so much.

But slowly the tears stopped as McElwee realized just how lucky she was. "I just started to think, that's just 1:04.53 of my life - nothing more and nothing less," McElwee said. "And I started to understand that I'm going to have a lot of disappointing 1:04.53 moments in my life, but I'm young enough and lucky enough to be alive and I'm going to have a lot more 1:04.52 moments ahead of me."

McElwee has at least two more surgeries remaining on her ear and she's not sure if she'll be able to swim next season. What she does know is that she's alive and has a bright future. She also knows time didn't beat her - she beat time.