More cancellations have been announced on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s swimming action, including the cancelation of an SEC showdown between the South Carolina and Vanderbilt, with Bellarmine, in Nashville.
But it wasn’t COVID that canceled this one – it was the winter storm that is expected to drop up to 7 inches of snow in parts of middle Tennessee.
South Carolina finished 11th and Vanderbilt finished 12th at last year’s SEC Championships, out of 12 teams, but in spite of their rankings, this meet had a lot of intrigue for a couple of reasons. One being that it would serve as a strong measuring stick for the Gamecocks in their first season under new head coach Jeff Poppell.
The other reason is that it was supposed to be the debut of World Junior Championships gold medalist Faith Knelson for Vanderbilt after transferring from Arizona.
While that cancellation wasn’t related to COVID-19, more meets are still falling victim to the surge in new infections nationwide.
At the Division I level, Green Bay’s meet against Northern Michigan has been canceled because of COVID issues within the Northern Michigan program.
College meets aren’t the only events getting canceled: the Eastern Zone IMX Extreme Games scheduled for the University of Maryland Aquatics Center at the end of January has been canceled as the results of a COVID-19 State of Emergency declared by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. That facility is closed until at least January 18th, and after that time, the number of guests allowed will be limited until the end of the State of Emergency.
Organizers are trying to reschedule the meet for April or May.
That meet is a huge event for athletes aged 9-14 every year.
The United States recorded 704,369 new cases of COVID-19 infection on Wednesday. While that is a slight tapering-off from Monday and Tuesday’s record highs, it’s too early to tell if the latest wave of the pandemic has peaked, or if it is just data variations.
Or maybe bc Vanderbilt only had a handful of swimmers available casue Covid
Up to 7″ of snow in middle Tennessee can mean anywhere from 1″ to 7″, closer to the former.
Bah, everyone knows this meet was actually cancelled due to an in-house conflict over naming rights to the eternal Andy Eaton Breastroke Challenge race that was intended to debut in 2022’s first home meet. Wake up, sheeple.