Marley Prothero knew she was likely swimming the final race of her college career at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Going into the race she felt ready. Knowing her dad, Mark, was there helped.

“I always look up to my dad before and after the race,” Marley said. “He always sends me some good vibes.”

Prothero is a 2008 Kentwood High graduate and was on the blocks for the 200 breaststroke on Feb. 25 at the Mountain West Conference championships.

“I was shooting to make NCAAs, so, my coaches had me time trial the 200 breast on the first night,” Marley said. “Thursday and Friday coming back into the 200 breast I had a better sense of how I had to swim it coming out of the time trial on Wednesday. Also in the back of my mind was if it ended up being my last race at UNLV. I was way more relaxed when I went into it.”

So relaxed, in fact, she beat Katelyn Weddle of San Diego State. Weddle, the defending conference champion in the event, was in the lane next to Marley.

“It was really my funnest race that I’ve probably ever done,” Marley said. “I had my whole team there behind the blocks.”

Mark, who is an attorney, has a video of Marley’s 200 breast championship swim on his computer at his law office. He pulled it up quickly, a proud dad happy to relive his daughter’s big moment, “I could watch this over and over again.”

As the video played he reflected on Marley’s swim. Once upon a time he was the swim coach at Kentwood and also swam collegiately for the University of Washington.

“It was the last swim on the last day of the meet, which is hard, because you’re tired, so I was proud of her focus,” he said. “She just had her mind set on winning on that last day. She looked really in control and really smooth. I just knew she had something up her sleeve for that night.”

Marley was right behind Weddle the whole race just waiting for her chance to get ahead.

Mark said she jammed the last turn but came up out of the water strong.

“It was really the last 15 yards, the very, very end,” Marley said. “I kind of did a little fist pump and jumped out of the water a little bit (after the race). I was really excited. Before I even turned around to look at the clock I could hear my team behind the blocks going crazy so I knew I either made NCAAs or I had won.”

Then Marley looked over at Weddle and saw a look of disappointment on her competitor’s face which confirmed the victory.

It was the perfect way for Marley to end her college swimming career.

Marley started swimming club with KING when she a little girl and competed all four years at Kentwood. She won two individual state championships while sporting the green, silver and black, both in the 200 yard individual medley. As a senior at Kentwood she took third in the 100 breaststroke.

Mark explained that his daughter took recruiting trips to UCLA, San Diego State, Northern Arizona University and UNLV.

“She just fell in love with UNLV,” he said. “My wife and I love hot and sunny, so, we were all about it. As long as there’s a pool or water nearby, we were happy.”

It helped that the coach, Jim Reitz, had grown up blocks away from Mark.

“When Marley got good, got to be the subject of interest of college coaches it was great when (UNLV) showed interest,” Mark said. “I liked his program and I like Jim and the values that he teaches. She was mature and we were pretty confident no matter where she went she would be able to handle it.”

Her visit to UNLV was the second of her four recruiting trips.

“I was actually terrified to go there but I ended up falling in love with it,” Marley said. “The team is like a family and the coaches are great.”

When Marley graduated from high school, Mark stopped coaching, which has afforded him and his wife Kelly time to travel to Marley’s meets.

Swimming at UNLV has been an outstanding experience, Marley said.

“It’s been amazing, the whole journey,” she said. “I’ve improved all four years which is sort of unheard of in college for females. I’ve always loved going to practice, it was never a job for me or something that I dreaded. A lot of people get sick of waking up at 5 in the morning. I’ve loved every minute of it but I’m still kind of sad it’s ending though I’m still training with them for the (Olympic) trials.”

Now that her college career has ended — she just missed a chance to compete at the NCAA championships  — Marley is focused on the Olympic trials set for June 25 through July 2 in Omaha, Neb.

She’ll be swimming in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events.

All of her teammates who are training along with her are now part of Team Rebels Aquatics which functions as a club team.

“It is a club atmosphere,” Marley said. “It’s much different than college swimming because you don’t have the team component, it’s much more individualized. I think we’ll have a good group there, we have five girls qualified and four boys qualified. That’s the most UNLV has brought than in the past 30 years. So, it’ll be a good group of us going and it’s going to be much bigger than any meet I’ve ever had swimming with KING. It will really be unlike any other meet I’ve ever been to and I’m really excited for it. My goal is to end on a good note and to have a good time.”

And she graduates from UNLV in May with a degree in meeting and event management.

During all this — her final season of college swim, working toward the Olympic trials and preparing to graduate — Marley has been coping with something that has made the family atmosphere at UNLV that much more significant.

Mark was diagnosed with lung cancer in October.

He had this cough that wouldn’t go away. He underwent a series of tests.

Shortly before Mark and Kelly were going to head to Arizona for one of Marley’s meets in the fall, his lung collapsed because the tumors were so large, there wasn’t enough room for air to flow into it.

Because of the collapsed lung, Mark said, his doctor wouldn’t let him fly. So, the Protheros drove the entire way to Arizona.

But, they didn’t tell Marley until December, keeping the diagnosis on a need to know basis until Mark could tell his youngest child in person.

He hoped that his hair wouldn’t fall out before he told her otherwise she would know immediately upon looking at him that something was wrong.

“After I told her, within three days (his hair) was gone,” Mark said. “I went through chemo and radiation through the middle of November through February. I was lucky that I had a great support system through that.”

Marley was thankful her parents told her in person. Like her dad, she had a great support system in place as well, right there among her teammates.

“It was hard because they were going home and I had to go back to UNLV,” she said. “They got to the point to be positive and be confident that he was going to get better and beat the cancer. The team here is just like family, so, the coaches knew. The team I told personally. Everybody was there for me every day. My team, my friends from back home that knew, and my family being absolutely positive and being supportive of me to keep swimming hard and to keep my goals in mind.”

After graduation Marley hopes to stay at UNLV and serve as an assistant coach for the swim team. Beyond that, she’s not sure where she’ll go, but when the time is right she’ll likely move closer to home.

“I definitely don’t want to live in Vegas forever,” she said. “The most important thing is when I start having my own family I want to be close to my parents.”

For now, though, she still has some swimming to do and a moment she will always share with her dad.

“He said going to conference and seeing me do well was probably the best dose of medicine he could’ve gotten,” Marley said. “It definitely was (significant) because… part of me wanted to do it just to make them proud. Just to see how happy it makes him definitely did make it a bit more meaningful and to have him there healthy and cheering.”