01/15/16 – Number of State Qualifiers Increased for Swimmers at State Meet

January 15, 2016 Swimming Blog Updates

When the realignment of swimming schools was revised last summer, one of the discussion points was about state qualifiers. At that time, with 9 regions, the Board of Control approved bringing two automatic qualifiers from each region, and an additional 14 statewide at-large qualifiers for a competition field of 32 in each event. 

Since the adoption of the alignment, staff and  tournament management has worked diligently with the time schedule to try and address issues where the Board wanted to see if it was possible to not reduce the number of at-large qualifiers from prior years (when 22 at-large made the field plus two automatic from each region).

At this point, the schedule has been adjusted to the point that the Swimming and Diving Advisory Committee recommended, and the Board of Control has approved, bringing in the 18 automatic qualifiers (two per region) and 22 at large for each swimming event. Therefore, the number of state qualifiers in all swimming events for the 2016 KHSAA Swimming and Diving State Meet has been increased from thirty-two (32) to forty (40).

For the diving portion of the meet, the Advisory Committee recommended taking a complete census of divers throughout the state through this year’s regions and evaluating the number of divers that should qualify for the state meet. The number of state qualifiers will remain at thirty-two (32) for 2016. At the January 28, 2016 Board of Control meeting the board will determine whether one automatic qualifier from each region will advance to the state meet along with 23 at-large scores or two automatic qualifiers from each region with 14 at-large scores.