At a recent executive committee meeting the Georgia High School Association decided to expand their state swimming championships from two to four meets.
Previously there were only two meets held for two combined groups of classes– one for the 6A and 7A divisions and another for the 1A-5A divisions. Beginning with the next academic year there will still be two meets, with two sets of individual champions, as they have been: one from 1A-5A, the other with 6A and 7A combined. The difference will be that 4 state titles will be awarded: one for classes 1A-3A, one for Classes 4A-5A, one for Class 6A, and one for Class 7A (the biggest schools, generally).
With only two state championship meets a number of swimmers from small high schools often struggled to qualify for a state championships. However, the expansion from two to four team titles will give these swimmers a chance at being competitive within their respective divisions.
In addition, changes were made that will allow the top 30 place finishes in finals to score – whereas in previous years only the top 20 place finishes in finals scored points.
Edit: A previous version of this article indicated that the meet would be split into 4. Instead, it will be split into 2 for the purposes of competition and individual titles, but 4 team awards will be given.
I always liked that there were fewer State meets so that if you won a state title – it meant something. Don’t water down the sport so that there are many State Champs in every event. A swimmer can qualify for a state meet regardless of how “good” their team is.
At first, I thought scoring top 30 was a terrible idea, but then I remembered this is a high school meet. Will it water down the competition? I guess, but again this is a high school team meet, not OTs. I fail to see why adding a C final somehow taints the meet. There will still be a handful of fast times. Nobody cares how fast 30th, or 10th goes. Adding a C final wouldn’t have made Michael Taylor suddenly only go a 49.
I see the argument that this is the participation trophy phenomenon, and to an extent I agree, but this is necessary to show true depth. Last year, the 1-5A girls state champion won with only 2… Read more »
I do see both sides of the argument here. At the end of the day, it dilutes the competition and those individuals who embrace the competition will be disappointed. However, it gives other schools a opportunity to win a team title which is pretty cool in itself. I received little competition in my individual events but was very disappointed to never win a team title. Individual medals pale in comparison to team titles, that is something very special. I do not agree with GHSA, in fact I think they are a bunch of clowns. I see both sides of this argument and will be curious to see how it plays out (for better or worse) in February.
This looks like the most sorry idea ever. After seeing the worst performances this year at 1-5A and seeing a sub par performance at 6-7A let’s spread it out ever further. These meets are gunna get slower and slower and whoevers winner is just gunna embarrass the rest of their competition. This isn’t even fun anymore.
Interested in the logistics. GHSA is barely able to jam in the 2 meets on Friday/Sat at Tech, given they have to give the pool back to GT for practice as well. Will have to be multiple sites.
Prelims this year for the 2 meets, being split in two pools was a pain as well.
Last, will they have different state meet qual standards per meet (Like Michigan and other states do)? Right now all classes have same (easy candidly) standards
Will they eliminate crazy rule of 4 entries per event per school?
MY understanding is that it is still 2 meets, they just score out each meet into two meets—the 5A schools still compete against the 1A schools, but the 1A schools only worry about scoring more points than the 2A and 3A schools. I believe that is why they are scoring out to 30 places. So, it shouldn’t take any longer.
I doubt they will eliminate the 4 entries per event rule, and what’s crazy about it?
Great question about the standards. I doubt they will change those, as making top 30 is the only way to score, and 30th is presumably well under the qual.
4 per team– if a kid makes a cut, they should get to swim the race. It’s not the kid’s fault that the GHSA state times are easy or they swim for a school that has lots of depth, make the cut, get to swim.
As a parent of a former GA high school 4 year state qualifier from a smaller school, I applaud the state for trying to address some of the disadvantages the smaller schools faced in the 2 meet scenario. However, it seems that those involved the reconfiguration do not understand the benefit of competition for all qualifying swimmers. My child is now competing at the collegiate level but I know that he would prefer to continue to compete with the best swimmers, regardless of school size. From our experience ( a school that would have won the 1-3A championship for 4 years in a row of such a meet existed, the only problem was the refusal to recognize team champions at… Read more »
I tapered for two days, didn’t shave and still won the 100 breast in the 1-5a division a few years back because it was a slow year for that event. The fact that they are adding another 10 finalists while also going from two to four meets is absolutely insane. The qualifying times to make the meet are a joke when you compare to how tough it is to get a swim a florida HS states, through actually racing at the regional level. I’ve been disgusted with GSHA officials many times in the past, as well as some of the worst high school coaches that would get a whole rival team disqualified if they could just to make sure their… Read more »
Clearly you a supremely talented athlete and gift to the swimming world.
Give everyone a medal. If you can swim there and back, you get a medal. Just because one goes to a small school doesn’t mean you can’t train hard and go for the gold. hire a good coach, etc. don’t encourage mediocrity!