Rather than racing in a regular 100 breast final with the hopes of winning back-to-back state championships, Summit High School senior and South Carolina commit Yehor Maistruk received a rare opportunity to swim his race in a re-swim at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions.
Why the re-swim opportunity? Neither Maistruk nor Westfield’s Dylan Lagrimas had heard the starter due to the crowd noise at Gloucester Tech, causing them to miss the start of the race while the other six swimmers were already in the water racing.
The present officials ruled that Maistuk and Lagrimas would be granted a re-swim. It was reported in an article by NJ.com that the other six swimmers who did race the event final were given the same opportunity, but their time from the re-swim would be their official time, rather than taking the better of the two, and would have, in short, swum that initial race for nothing.
Among those who declined was the winner of that first heat, Josh DeMarco of Lawrence High School, who touched in 55.95. He stood nearby, watching the race, and witnessed Maistruk swim a half-second faster in 55.45, making DeMarco the runner-up in the event.
Lawrence coach Ryan Shive made it known that he would appeal the decision to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Below is the full meet, courtesy of the Big State Sports YouTube channel. The initial 100 breast race can be seen at the 2:05:00 mark, while the reswim occurs at the 2:45:30 mark.
“I was on the block, and it was really loud. I could not hear even the take your mark signal.” Maistruk said in a report from NJ.com. “I was just really confused about what happened.”
By the rule of the National Federation of State High School Associations, a re-swim may be given by a referee if a faulty start unfairly affects a competitor or the entire heat, particularly in championship finals.
In total, two additional swimmers chose to participate in the re-swim, including Chatham’s Andrew O’Day, whose coach, Laura Hartnett, claimed that O’Day also couldn’t hear the start and dove in late, and believes that offering the re-swim was the right call.
“Something obviously wasn’t right, so I think offering for the kids to have a second heat of it was right,” Hartnett said to nj.com. “I think personally that should have been a race that the officials recalled from the start.”
The decision to have the re-swim was not finalized until after the following event. But the 2nd chance swim did not occur until the conclusion of the 400 free relay, in which Lagrimas had to swim. 20 minutes after that relay, the swimmers raced.
Though the time was not what he had wanted, initially hoping to break Matt Fallon’s meet record of 54.21 from 2020, he still managed to defend his title from last season, where he won in 54.34.
Per National Federation High School Rules, technically blowing the whistle and the step up command is the beginning of the event. If a competitor fails to comply it’s a DQ.
That being said, the starter/referee has a certain level of discretion and should be questioning why they have two missing swimmers in a CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL before starting the race??? Clearly they hadn’t been notified of illness or event withdrawal prior to event beginning as then you move alternates in. A couple of pet peeves, I don’t know if it was Colorado timing systems but there block speakers are garbage. Last but not least, when pools are built, the budget people always seem to axe the sound curtains and baffles… Read more »
A lot of fast swims at meet and a colossal mistake by officials in breaststroke.
Wow that’s crazy. Happy for Maistruk. Congratulations on being State Champion (again)! 👏👏👏
Very bad acoustics in the facility. Any crowd noise makes it difficult to hear the starter, even from behind the blocks.