The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) has released on it’s website the “At-Large” qualifying times for the first ever California State High School Swimming Championships to be held in Fresno at Clovis West High School on May 22 and 23, 2015 one week after the completion of the last section championship.
In addition to a fixed number of automatic entries given to each CIF Section based on finish in the individual section championship meets, ranging from as many as 5 automatic entries to as few as 1 for the smaller sections, high school swimmers in 2015 can enter the meet per the following “At-Large” entry critera:
Swimming 2015 “At-Large” Entries
- Individuals must compete, and qualify through, their respective CIF section championships to participate in CIF state/regional championships.
- Sections may enter additional competitors provided they have met or bettered the “At-Large” standard for their event during the finals of their section meet.
- A qualifying time can only be achieved during the Section Finals (not during regular season, not during preliminary heats).
- Relay lead off times may not be used for individual qualifying.
- All times must be recorded on “Fully Automatic Timing” systems (FAT). Hand times will not be accepted.
The link to the CIF Web announcement may be found by clicking here: CIF 2015 “At-Large” Entry Standards
A little quick internet search reveals that if these time standards and qualification rules had been in effect last year, 12 boys and 14 girls would have qualified from the South Section in the 200 free. In the NCS, 7 boys and 7 girls would have qualified. Central Section only the champions would have qualified. One thing that is unclear is what happens if someone swims the qualifying time in Console Finals? This is likely to happen in the NCS.
There are two ways to qualify. One way is by finishing in a top spot in your respective Section meet. The number of qualifiers from each section varies (read the article).
The other way is by meeting the qualifying time (read the article). Therefore, if all 16 kids make a qualifying time then they all qualify. However, even if no one from your ‘local’ section meet makes a qualifying time, your section will still be represented (read the article).
Maybe not, wording is ambiguous and a Mom from our NCS team contacted CIF about it.
Here is the response from CIF:
The “Section Finals” includes the final/championship heat for each division in a section.
Swimmers who qualify for the state meet are those who meet or better the at-large
qualifying time in the final divisional heat of the section championships. If an athlete
betters the at-large time during the consuls but not during the final heat, they would not
qualify.
I hope this clarifies.
If this is correct (and it kind of makes sense so that that SS D1 doesn’t overwhelmingly
dominate), at most most eight swimmers from each section… Read more »
Another swim mom (mis espousa) just checked in today with CIF and received a contradicting message: section swims in either of an A or B final can qualify one for the at-large times.
So yes, AcademicJock is correct. SS-D1 (and hopefully NCS) will likely send quite a few swimmers to the inaugural state championship.
With these Time Standards, this will essentially mean the meet will only include 3 or 4 CIF Sections. Very few sections besides the CIF-SS, CCS, and NCS have more than the event winners meet these standards anyways.
I guess the hope is that it will encourage folks across the state to up their game. In places like the Central Section, it will no longer be acceptable to just be a “big fish in a small pond.”
That’s not what this means. Please re-read the article – the “at-large” standards are in addition to section allocated entries.
“In addition to a fixed number of automatic entries given to each CIF Section based on finish in the individual section championship meets, ranging from as many as 5 automatic entries to as few as 1 for the smaller sections…”
Criag,
The Grand Inquisitor is correct. There are two ways to get into this meet, either as an automatic qualifier or as a an “at-large” bid. Each section has a pre-determined number of automatic qualifiers. For example, the Southern Section (SS) will have 5 automatic qualifiers, and the Oakland section will have one. As the SS has 4 divisions, per my conversation with the CIF rep a few months ago, it will be up to the SS to determine how the 5 automatic qualifications will be allocated across the divisions.
All CIF sections that choose to participate should have swimmers in this meet (Northern probably won’t as, unlike the other sections, their HS season is in the fall).
Meet will actually be hosted in Fresno at Clovis West High School
Craigh, Thanks for this. You are correct. As soon as I recover my ability to make edits in this story, I’ll make that change.
And #6, you haven’t exceeded your monthly water ration.
Ha ha. TG for the recent rains (and soon to come snows).