The Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC) pool in Oklahoma City hosted its final meet this weekend, according to King Marlin Swim Club, with the storied local pool set to close its doors at the end of summer.
King Marlin hosted the Firecracker Open from Friday, June 26th to Sunday, June 28th, featuring multiple age groups competing and saying their farewells to the Oklahoma City pool.
The Oklahoma City Community College announced back in April that it would be closing its pool permanently at the end of the season, citing the high costs of maintaining a swimming facility. The pool has served the Oklahoma City area for 25 years and is the home base of both the King Marlin Swim Club and the American Energy Swim Club, along with multiple high school teams.
From our report on the closing back in April:
An email from college president Paul Sechrist said that the pool would close on September 7th, after the Labor Day weekend, but a notice posted on the door to the facility Wednesday said that it would close on August 31st.
Sechrist said that the pool was close to its “functional and physical obsolesce,” and that “without significant investment, it’s only a matter of time before the aging infrastructure experiences a catastrophic system/mechanical failure.”
Sechrist cited $280,000 per year in annual maintenance, and a architecturally-generated estimate of $6 million to repair.
King Marlin posted a series of tweets from the meet this weekend, memorializing the pool in its final meet:
State records, best times, memories made & shared. Goodbye to #occc #lastmeet #firecrackeropen @swimswamnews pic.twitter.com/Fw4UYMMVTT
— King Marlin SwimClub (@king1marlin) June 29, 2015
Our 12 and unders at the #lastmeet at #occc. @swimswamnews #firecrackeropen pic.twitter.com/cALe2qiwHa
— King Marlin SwimClub (@king1marlin) June 29, 2015
13 and overs at the final session ever at #occc. @swimswamnews #firecrackeropen #lastmeet pic.twitter.com/hXp5lpcoQy
— King Marlin SwimClub (@king1marlin) June 29, 2015
You can find more information on the meet by following this link to the Oklahoma Swimming website.
I grew up in OKC and about 5 mins from there. It is a sad day. Pool is on wrong side of town. Brand new pool opened in Edmond last year or so.
As a swim parent I hate to see any pool close. Pool time is just too precious to give up.
Sad day for Oklahoma Swimming and for the community. This was a great facility.
What a tragedy! Opened in 1989 and already considered obsolete? Is there more to this story somehow?