The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF)’s Southern Section announced on Wednesday that the Orange County Department of Public Health gave its approval to hold the Section’s Swimming and Diving Championships for the 2020-21 school year.
The Southern Section comprises most of the public and private high schools in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, and central and southern Santa Barbara counties. [Note: There is a separate section called CIF Los Angeles City Section for teams from the public schools that make up the vast Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).]
The 2021 Swimming Championships will take place on Tuesday, May 25 (Division 2), Thursday, May 27 (Division 1), and Saturday, May 29 (Divisions 4 morning, Division 3 afternoon) at the Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita. The top 16 times in each event, plus two alternate swimmers, will qualify for their respective division championships and the events will be swum as timed finals.
Diving will take place a week earlier, on Thursday and Friday, May 20 and 21, at the Marguerite Aquatics Center. Qualifying standards for divers are found on the CIF-SS website.
No spectators will be allowed but both the diving and the swimming meets will be livestreamed.
CIF Southern Section requires that the host site for playoffs and championships “adhere to the COVID-19 protocols of the California Department of Public Health and/or local departments of public health, whichever is more restrictive, when hosting a Southern Section playoff contest.”
Around the state:
- The North Coast Section announced earlier this month that it was canceling the 2021 NCS Swimming and Diving Championships.
- The San Diego Section announced it would be going forward with the SDS Division 1 and 2 meets on April 24-25, despite having originally canceled the meet.
- The CIF State Championships is still on the schedule for June 4-5.
‼️ CDPH/COUNTY/SCHOOL GUIDELINES pic.twitter.com/Is6YHG4pfQ
— CIF Southern Section (@CIFSS) April 28, 2021
Unfortunately it looks like CIF just canceled the state meet in Clovis: https://cifss.org/news/cif-state-update-regarding-season-2-championships/
The notice says state CIF is canceled because of a limited number of NorCal sections having regionals “coupled with potential logistical/travel issues.”
CIF could easily allow the top swimmers from dual meets or league championships in NorCal to qualify for State without having regionals. And what exactly are the “potential” travel issues that affect swimmers but not football or basketball players? Cal swimmers take it in the shorts, again.
Is anyone going to register their outrage over this? California swimmers will continue to be disadvantaged vis-a-vis their counterparts in other states because CIF can’t get its act together. Online petition? Lawsuit anyone?
I hope SwimSwam will do a story on this (hint, hint)
This is good news. CIF-San Diego Section did its meet last weekend and it was great. A reasonable amount of spectators were allowed. Didn’t see anything on SwimSwam about it.
There was. Applause to CIF SD for figuring it out and reversing the original decision.
This weekend in Orange County there will be a prelim/final swim meet attended by high school swimmers from all over the state. The races are not limited to 16 swimmers. CIF SS be better! Two years these kids haven waiting. Seniors not in the top 16 won’t be able to swim in the meet that for many would be the culmination of their swim careers. Be better and figure it out. San Diego did.
Anne for clarification the swim meet will not be at Marguerite Aquatic Center. The swim meet will be at Santa Margarita High School and the diving meet will be at Marguerite Aquatic Center.
Makes sense that diving and swimming would be in separate places.