Shippensburg Among PSAC Schools To Opt In For Swimming, Citing Low Risk

The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) announced that it would be permitting championship opportunities in both men’s and women’s swimming and cross country in November, a change of course after the conference’s initial statement that all fall and winter sports would be cancelled.

PSAC made the change due to the fact that at least six schools opted in for both sports, an option left open by the Board when the original announcement was made.

Shippensburg University was among the schools to opt in to both swimming and cross country, but not other sports such as basketball and wrestling.

Shippensburg athletic director Jeff Michaels told local Pennsylvania newspaper The Sentinel that the decision to opt into particular sports, and not all of them, was due to the risk factor, and how that impacted NCAA testing protocols.

“Both swimming and cross country are identified by the NCAA as low-risk sports with relation to COVID-19, which limited some of the testing obligations,” said Michaels.

“The basketballs and wrestling are defined as high-risk, while indoor track and field is at the intermediate-risk level; they all have higher testing requirements than the NCAA’s low-risk sports.”

Michaels also noted that in basketball, wrestling and indoor track and field, there is a “hard stop” deadline where conference play needs to conclude to allow athletes to progress to NCAAs, which appeared unlikely to be met.

The conference remains committed to full seasons for all spring sports in 2021.

With swimming getting the go ahead, at least half of the schools that compete opted in. 12 PSAC schools sponsor women’s swimming, while seven of those institutions also support a men’s program.

At the 2020 PSAC Championships in February, West Chester University won its 22nd consecutive men’s team title and 14th straight women’s crown, with Bloomsburg University and Indiana University of PA the respective runner-ups.

The conference has yet to make any further announcements on specific dates for the upcoming campaign, but did note in its November release that the “anticipated” date for the swimming championships would be over a weekend in late April.