The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Postseason path more complicated than usual
It’s that time of year again — even if hardly anything resembles what it has in years past.
The road to state has arrived for News-Herald coverage area swimmers and divers, beginning with sectional competition this week.
This 2021 path is unlike any previously traversed, so this annual primer will have to be more thorough out of necessity.
Before jumping into intricate details, first the big changes: District swimming and diving will not be contested at Cleveland State this winter, with Busbey Natatorium’s competition pool closed. Instead, district swimming will be at SPIRE, and district diving will be at Massillon Perry.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced Jan. 14 its intention to still stage state — with an altered format — at its traditional home, Canton McKinley’s Branin Natatorium. That hasn’t come without adversity either, though.
Two sources with knowledge of the situation told The News-Herald that Branin hosting was still not 100% certain as of the last week of January. Branin’s competition pool had been drained for most of 2020 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and has been undergoing repairs.
Primarily, it was to install a new glass panel for the pool’s underwater observation deck, along with tiling work.
The customized panel didn’t arrive until January, however, and the pool wasn’t scheduled to be refilled until Feb. 1.
Should be there any issues, the backup plan calls for state to also be hosted at SPIRE.
SPIRE is mandating visitors fill out a health questionnaire prior to arrival for any event on its campus, which can be accessed at spirecovidform. paperform.co. Completion of the form sends an automated approval email, which needs to be presented on site at SPIRE. Visitors also undergo a temperature check before heading in.
The form has to be filled out each day a visitor plans to head to SPIRE.
All of that noted, here is the annual look in this space at pertinent information on the road to state:
Sectional swimming
Both sectional meets involving News-Herald coverage area squads will again be at SPIRE, with D-II scheduled for Feb. 12 and D-I on Feb. 13.
Each division will be split into two sessions, one at 10 a.m. and the other at 5 p.m. Which teams will be in which sessions will be unveiled after entries are received. Area squads in each division are as follows: DIVISION I » Brush, Chardon (girls), Euclid, Madison, Mayfield, Mentor, North, Riverside and South DIVISION II » Andrews Osborne, Beachwood, Beaumont, Chagrin Falls, Chardon (boys), Geneva, Gilmour, Hawken, Kenston, Kirtland (girls), Lake Catholic, NDCL, Perry, University, VASJ, West Geauga and Wickliffe
Qualifiers to district will be the customary two automatics in each event, plus at-larges in boys D-I (24 individual event, 14 relays), girls D-I (34 individual event, 14 relays) and girls and boys D-II (26 individual event, 16 relays).
News-Herald coverage area swimmers who won individual-event sectional titles as underclassmen a year ago were Riverside’s Samantha Smith (200 and 500 free), Mentor’s Mallory Dondorfer (200 IM) and Mayfield’s Gianna Leffler (100 free and 100 back) in D-I and Hawken’s Ella Gilson (200 free), Jessica Eden (200 IM and 100 back), Tori Culotta (500 free), Sydney Bare (100 breast) and Michael Butler (500 free) in D-II.
Area senior swimmers who won sectional titles as freshmen in 2018 were Leffler (200 medley relay), Bare (200 medley relay), Gilson (200 and 400 free relay) and Hawken’s Alex Podrez (200 IM).
District swimming
SPIRE will host district swimming for D-II on Feb. 19 and D-I on Feb. 20. Both divisions will have sessions separated by gender, with the girls session at 10 a.m. and the boys at 4 p.m.
According to the Northeast District Athletic Board, there will not be awards presentations on the podium for sectional or district. Awards will be announced, and medals will be given to coaches to disseminate to their swimmers.
As usual, there will be two automatic qualifiers in each event to state, along with 16 at-larges determined by the 16 fastest times once all four districts are compiled together.
Due to pool availability, the Southwest District’s sectional competition already took place this past weekend. But district at Miami (Ohio) is still slated to essentially be in line with Ohio’s other districts Feb. 17-20.
State swimming
The state meet — again, still with the intention of being contested in Canton — is being split over four days.
Girls D-II will be Feb. 24, with boys D-II (Feb. 25), girls D-I (Feb. 26) and boys D-I (Feb. 27) to follow.
There will be no preliminary heats at state this year. In turn, state will be run similar to district, with timed finals. Since SPIRE is a 10-lane pool and Canton is an eight-lane pool, there would be three heats of each event.
When there are state prelims, swimmers can’t leapfrog in placement from a ‘B’ final into an ‘A’ final. That wouldn’t apply this year, however, without prelims. So conceivably, swimmers in a penultimate heat could leapfrog onto the podium.
The last OHSAA guidance stated one spectator per swimming state qualifier would be permitted to attend.
Sectional diving
The area’s D-I diving contingent will waste no time, with a Massillon Perry Sectional (usually hosted at Solon) slated for Feb. 8, girls at 11 a.m., boys at 6 p.m. The exact number of qualifiers for district out of Massillon Perry was not immediately available.
As usual, D-II divers will have no sectional meet, so all divers advance to district.
District diving
Both division’s district meets this year will be at Massillon Perry. D-II will be contested Feb. 17, and D-I will be Feb. 18. Both will have an 11 a.m. girls session and a 6:30 p.m. boys session. Diving order will be determined by lot.
There will still be 24 total state qualifiers in each division according to the OHSAA. However, the number from each district fluctuates from year to year depending on the volume of divers in each district. The number of qualifiers from each district, according to NEDAB and OHSAA information, has not yet been determined.
State diving
In a change from years past, state diving is scheduled to take place the same day as its division’s and gender’s swimming finals. Girls D-II will be Feb. 24, followed by boys D-II (Feb. 25), girls D-I (Feb. 26) and boys D-I (Feb. 27). Start times have not been announced.