The Virginia High School League (VHSL) announced that they’re postponing winter state championships through Saturday due to winter storm warnings.
Virginia’s swimming & diving high school championships were originally scheduled for Friday, February 21 and Saturday, February 22 across the state in a prelim/final format. However, the state is currently experiencing heavy snowfall. Forecasts say the eastern part of the state could receive as much as 12 inches of snowfall in the upcoming days.
The VHSL website lists the new dates and locations for the state meets (also listed below). Sessions are now timed finals. A VHSL swim coach confirmed to SwimSwam that Class 4 is set to swim in the morning, while Class 3 will swim in the afternoon.
CLASS 1&2 SWIMMING | Feb. 24 morning (SWIMRVA)
CLASS 1&2 DIVING | Feb. 24 afternoon (St. Catherine’s Aquatics Facility)
CLASS 3&4 SWIMMING | Feb. 23 (Christiansburg Aquatic Center)
CLASS 3&4 DIVING | Feb. 23 (Christiansburg Aquatic Center)
CLASS 5 SWIMMING | Feb. 23 afternoon (Jeff Rouse Swim & Sport Center)
CLASS 5 DIVING | Feb. 23 afternoon (Jeff Rouse Swim & Sport Center)
CLASS 6 SWIMMING | Feb. 23 morning (Jeff Rouse Swim & Sport Center)
CLASS 6 DIVING | Feb. 24 morning (Jeff Rouse Swim & Sport Center)
Gymnastics and wrestling were among the other sports that had state championships postponed by weather. Virginia private schools, under VISAA, already had their state swimming and diving championships last weekend at the Jeff Rouse Swim & Sport Center.
Now they’ve been postponed again. VHSL has a notice on their page. Can’t post a pic, and the link provided doesn’t take you to the photo, but here’s the text:
As a result of the weather conditions and its aftermath across the Commonwealth, the VHSL is canceling all state championship events for gymnastics, swimming and diving, and wrestling scheduled for Sunday and Monday. The VHSL will continue to prioritize everyone’s safety and well-being. As a result, the VHSL will now hold its state championships for gymnastics, swimming and diving, and wrestling next week with an announcement of dates, locations, and schedules to Follow as soon as possible.
Florida High School swimming did this in 2023 for a hurricane
MIAA (Massachusetts) state meets for boys also had to be rescheduled from last weekend to this weekend. The Division 2 champs were able to stay at Boston University but Division 1 was moved to Philips Academy.
This is a bummer as the Class 6 (largest school) swimmers will only get a morning swim — and it’s especially rough on kids moving into new events for the State Meet who don’t have a fast suited swim as a seed time (which leaves them out of the fast heat in a timed finals setup). It’s also a mess for relays — as many teams have fast entry times in all 3 relays but will only be able to stack 2 of them at this meet. With timed finals – there’s no prelims to sort those teams that are not stacking a given relay.
VHSL made a horrible decision to take away prelims and finals.
Be happy you have a meet!
Wiac championships are likely going to be timed finals today for a power outage