The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors approved a state final hosting contract extension with the FMC Natatorium for the IHSA Swimming & Diving State Finals during its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday.
The three year extension makes FMC Natatorium the host of the championship through 2027.
The facility, located in Westmont, was constructed in 2020 and features an Olympic-size competition pool with seating for 1,400 spectators, deck capacity for 800 people, warm-up and cool-down space and a video scoreboard.
FMC Natatorium has hosted the state swimming and diving competitions for the past three years, where it sparked some controversy for the racing format.
Despite FMC’s state-of-the-art facility, the meet was only conducted in six lanes of competition for the first two years that it hosted the IHSA Swimming & Diving State Finals; this past year saw the format change to eight lanes for the first time. Given that the meet took place in a 9-lane pool, the decision to continue limiting finals to only six swimmers per heat was likely due to the historical formatting of the competition.
Prior to taking up residence in Westmont, the hosting responsibility rotated between New Trier High School and Evanston Township High School. From 1958 to 2022, the two schools alternated playing host to the state finals each year and took great pride in putting on the athletic event.
Worth noting is that while Evanston and New Trier’s pools are significantly smaller than FMC Natatorium, they actually have space for nearly the same number of spectators.
The ETHS Burton Aquatic Center features a 25-yard, 6-lane pool and can hold 1,200 spectators, albeit in a far more cramped environment. In a similar vein, New Trier’s natatorium (opened in 1937) boasts a 25-yard, 8-lane pool that is 10 and a half feet deep with a spectator capacity of 1,200. Both pools had seating on three sides of the competition course, allowing more spectators than normal in a smaller area.
While FMC’s boasts a much newer, state-of-the-art facility than either Evanston or New Trier, the new hosts of the IHSA Swimming & Diving State Finals did not seem to be using it to its full potential by only racing in six lanes the first few years, making IHSA Board’s decision to extend their contract somewhat of a surprise.
So glad that FMC was built giving the IHSA State Championships a proper venue to host State and we no longer need to host at our historic but historically run down pools.
It was definitely exciting at Evanston but is a tremendous upgrade at Westmont.
I find it hard to believe that the facility hosting the event was the entity deciding how many swimmers per heat. If that is the case, then the Illinois High School Athletic Association is not really doing it’s full job. They should determine the format for all High School State Meet competitions in all sports.
Sounds like the ETHS facility will no longer be considered as an option with the new formatting.
Correct. Meet format — # of lanes used in Prelims and Finals, plus qualifying standards limiting the #of participants (in a state with one of the largest swimming populations, all in a single competition class) is all on IHSA and their resistance to change. To their credit, they have made the recent changes to allow more participation.
Meets here are dead. New trier and Evanston are the place to run state. It would turn into a mad house. Bring it back
Sports illustrated had a picture years ago of Champs at one of those pools. I loved it – a complete mad house of nose and energy