The Collegiate Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) has canceled this week’s Open Water Championship that was scheduled for Sunday in Miami, Florida because of severe weather in the area.
The 5 kilometer race was to be held in Biscayne Bay, which has been inundated with wet and windy weather over the last few days. Sunday’s forecast calls for a 60% chance of rain, with sustained winds of 20 miles per hour and gusts over 40 miles per hour, according to The Weather Channel.
The meet, which until last year was held as a season-opening event, is not an NCAA-sanctioned national championship meet, but rather a CSCAA-hosted event that draws swimmers from all three divisions of the NCAA.
The races are 5 kilometers and award both individual champions and team championships, with the best three finishers from each team making up their ‘team score,’ using a system similar to cross country where points are awarded for order of finish rather than times being added. Waves on Friday peaked as high as 17 feet on Friday, with multiple marine services saying that waves over 5 feet can be dangerous for most swimmers.
Each team can only enter up to 5 swimmers.
Last year’s results are below:
Women’s Individual Results
- Ella Dyson, Rice University (58:08.88)
- Lola Mull, Northwestern University (58:11.35)
- Kaitlin Gravell, Villanova University (58:17.20)
Women’s Team Results
- Rice University (2:55.25)
- Northwestern University (2:58.30)
- Villanova University (2:58.35)
Men’s Individual Results
- Raul Brice, Mars Hill University (54:37.54)
- Ondrej Zach, Northern Michigan University (54:40.87)
- Ido Gal, University Of Cincinnati (54:45.46)
Men’s Team Results
- University Of Cincinnati (2:47.14)
- Northwestern University (2:49.07)
- Villanova University (2:49.36)
Sensible decision. Very strange holiday lead up here in Miami. I have lots of fancy outdoor decorations but have had to disconnect most of them due to persistent wet conditions. Circuits tripped, etc. I have talked to neighbors who have done the same.
I raced in this event about 5 years ago when it was held in a reservoir in Kansas! Needless to say, 17 footers weren’t of concern.
Yeah 17ft high waves would be equivalent to asking World Aquatics to hold their recent World Cup swim in the waves of Nazare Portugal. Even veteran ocean folk would have more sense than to swim in those conditions. Shame there is/was no contingency venue close by, racers just want to race, and for Openwater folk, opportunities to “race” are never that plentiful in the first place.