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.
Previously coached in Illinois for 10 years, recently had the opportunity to tour FMC. FMC is a beautiful Natatorium. Evanston and New trier lacked proper warm-up and warm down pools as well as amenities. Always disliked the preference for Chicago teams and the hosts over downstate as well. Keep the competition in FMC better pool, more fair competition. Chicago folks can drive to the suburbs just like we had to from north-western Illinois.
Obviously there’s a nostalgia and crowd factor to the New Trier and Evanston pools but the FMC pool really is better for swimmers in terms of deck space and fast swims.
Also calling the New Trier pool 10.5 feet is very generous since you can stand on the starting end
FMC’s seating capacity is double what NT and Evanston has. The idea that you would host it any where other than FMC defies all logic.
No other facilities are capable of holding the meet as far I know.
And yes, New Trier and Evanston are ancient, but the crowd is right on top of the swimming pool with the tops seats being able to touch the low ceiling. You could feel the crowd on deck and in the water. It was an amazing experience. No one will every build a pool with such a low ceiling again. It was like a caged death match.
Trivia Question that contradicts the article:
In which pool at the 1988 State Finals did Brian Kurza break a national puclic high school record in the 50 free with a 20.26.
(Hint: it wasn’t New Trier or Evanston)
Hinsdale South. I was at that meet as a Jr
Hinsdale South
Hinsdale South
My freshman year—- gosh I want to say fenwick…but I think it was Saint “something”… oh man you gotta tell us!
Hinsdale South
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.
6 lanes in a 9 lane pool? Even Senior State at FMC uses more…perhaps it’s time to open up both the East and West Pool for competition.
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
You’re going to push more of the best swimmers out of high school swimming if their taper meet is in a pool with a 3’6” turn end and a pool with a 4’ turn end. It’s not as loud in FMC, but it’s not dead.
The old pools were slow pools. Fast times were achieved only by overcoming painfully shallow conditions.
State meets at Evanston and New Trier were more intense and louder than pretty much all high-level meets, including NCAA finals and really, Olympic Trials (when it comes to noise within an arena). Yes, really! Anyone who thinks otherwise…I wish you would have gotten to experience it.