Late filing: Swimmers will miss championships
Athletes from Peoria district schools Sunrise Mountain and Liberty won’t be competing this weekend in the state swimming and diving championships at Mesa’s Skyline Aquatic Center.
The paperwork for the athletes for Saturday’s state meet were filed past the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s deadline.
“The names were submitted just after the deadline for the state meet and unfortunately students from Liberty and Sunrise won’t be able to compete,” said Danielle Airey, spokesperson for the Peoria Unified School District, in an email to azcentral sports. “Our coach and administrators have apologized profusely to the athletes and their families as we so disappointed that they will miss this opportunity.
“We’ve also reached out multiple times to the AIA to see if anything can be done so that the students aren’t penalized. We understand from them that they have rules and deadlines that must be followed for consistency.”
Among the ineligible athletes is a freshman diver who was hoping to become Phoenix Canyon View’s first state champion. Canyon View is the new Agua Fria Union High School District school with only freshmen this year.
“This is our inaugural season and to have our first-ever dive state qualifier unable to compete in the tournament is disappointing,” Canyon View Principal Phillip Nowlin said in an email. “It is unfortunate that student-athletes that have spent the entire season working towards the ultimate goal of competing at state, will miss out on a lifetime experience due to adult error.”
AIA Executive Director David Hines said that the association has to stay strict with deadlines on filing athletes’ paperwork to compete at state in individual sports.
“Whether they are 15 minutes late, an hour late, two days late, or 10 days late, you allow one, you have to allow the next,” Hines said. “I feel terrible for the kids. The thing that people have to understand, even though it seems l like we’re punishing those kids, you don’t have control over the adults.”
The AIA state swimming and diving championships are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Skyline Aquatic Center in Mesa for Divisions I and II and at Phoenix Country Day School’s Dady Aquatic Center for Division III. The diving preliminaries are Thursday for D.II and III with the semifinals on Friday and the finals on Saturday. The swimming prelims for all three divisions are Friday with finals on Saturday.