CHSAA has released its legislative agendas for the upcoming Legislative Council Committee meeting on April 26th. Among the proposals to be considered by the Swimming & Diving Committee, chaired by Smoky Hill High School’s Scott Cohen, is expanding scoring at the state championship meet from 16 to 20 swimmers.
The rationale behind the move is that the two facilities used for the state meets, the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Thornton and EPIC in Fort Collins, have the ability to expand to 10 competitive lanes. The only additional expected costs would be adding awards for 9th and 10th-place finishers, as all A-Finalists receive medals in Colorado. While different states score to different placings at the state meet, we can’t think of another state that scores to 20 places.
The other big news is realignment of schools – girls’ swimming in Colorado offers 3 classes from 3A (smallest) to 5A, while boys’ swimming offers 2: 4A (smallest) and 5A (biggest). Realignment would move both Valor Christian (enrollment 1,094) and Heritage (enrollment 1,712) high schools to Class 5A, even though their enrollments would have them in smaller classifications. Valor Christian swept the free relays at the 2018 4A State Championship meet and finished 3rd overall as a team; the boys were the runners-up of the 2017 state championship meet.
State Championship qualifying times for 2019 have also been proposed, while boys’ standards will be adjusted after the 2018 state meet in May. The state association’s stated goal is to produce 4 or 5 heats-per-event in prelims.
New York scores to 20-places at their state meet
South Carolina High School League scores to 20 places in its state championship meets