The inaugural CIF State Swimming and Diving Championships is akin to senior ditch day. Only a select few students will show up.
That is what is apparently happening at the inaugural statewide swim meet, which began Friday at Clovis West High School. Of the 44 CIF-Southern Section champions, only 23 will compete in the two-day meet, which had qualifying on Friday and the finals are on Saturday.
“High school swimming is like a different sport,” said Saugus High School’s Abbey Weitzeil, who set high school national records in the 50 and 100 freestyles last week in the CIF-SS Division 1 finals. “Its not really my focus; it’s just fun. I have bigger things to think about this summer.”
The problem appears to be a matter of scheduling.
“It’s a tough time,” said Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Aquatics team coach Jeff Julian. “The main issue for us is in that California that creates and extends another week of the high school season.”
The high school meets are in 25-yard pools and Southern California’s USA Swimming junior national 50-meter long course program generally begins the season with the Speedo Grand Challenge, a major national meet in Irvine this weekend.
“I didn’t have to think about it too much,” said Daniel MacArthur of Lakewood of passing up the State meet. “I’m very satisfied with where I’m leaving my high school career.”
USA Swimming’s long course season is typically only 10 weeks, several weeks shorter than the high school season.
“It’s a different animal,” Julian said. “You have much more of a shorter focus time to be ready for these major meets.”
Those major meets? It’s a pre-Olympic year and swimmers are trying to get times set up for next year’s Olympic Trials. There are also high school graduations and prom nights this weekend.
“Swimming is more about training and you can’t go from meet to meet hoping to improve,” Westlake coach Shannon Breese said.
How shorthanded will the CIF State meet be? The Southern Section receives more automatic bids than any other division with five. Only three swimmers and one team that had the fastest overall time at the CIF-SS Finals last week at Riverside City College will be competing. In many instances, the swimmers from the 17th and 18th-fastest times earned State bids after 12 or 13 faster swimmers declined. In the girls 200 free, the CIF-SS’s 38th-fastest swimmer qualified. In the boys 200 free, 12 athletes declined, making Marina’s Joe Lastelic the top CIF-SS qualifier.
“We expected there to be some kind of conflicts,” said Kristine Palle, an assistant commissioner for the CIF-SS, overseeing swimming. “There might be a better time for this. We thought we would get through this first year and find out what people want to participate and who does not want to participate.”
The CIF-SS tried an all-encompassing Masters meet, matching all of the top swimmers, with little success a few years ago.
“State is already after league prelims, finals, then CIF prelims and finals, which is already around a two-week taper,” Redondo’s Elle Inscore said. “That itself is pretty much impossible to keep up and stay in good racing shape, let alone yet another week. It’s just too much.
“I know me personally and a lot of other state swimmers are physically drained, as well as just mentally done with swim season. Three big meets in a row, you kind of lose discipline and get tired of it. I’m sure some people will try and pull through, but it’s just one too many championship meets in a row.”
The Rose Bowl’s Julian said he encourages his athletes to compete in high school competition and he said he gave them the option to compete in State or in Irvine.
“Swimmers love the high school season, to race in dual meets, get excited for league and get excited for CIF,” he said. “I made the decision within my program to take advantage of their excitement. They enjoy it.
“But it benefits the swimmers, not the clubs. Everybody says its club against high school swimming. That’s not it. In the end, its the wish and decision that is best for the swimmers.”
Unless the CIF dramatically changes its swimming schedule, the high school and long course seasons are likely going to go head-to-head for years to come.
But there are swimmers who are embracing the inaugural meet. Michael Wang won a pair of CIF-SS Division 4 title for Rowland and swims for the Trident Swim Club.
“He just wanted to try it since it was the first state championships,” said Rowland and Trident coach Mike Cody. “There is nothing to lose. “It’s kind of neat because not many people can say they have gone to the state meet.”
Staff writers Evan Barnes, Mike Guardabascio and David Thorpe and correspondent James H. Williams contributed to this story.
