11/15/23 – Board of Control Adopts Changes to State Formats For Swimming, Indoor Track & Field, Girls’ Wrestling; Sets State Archery Site, Accepts Results of Bylaw 9 Amendment

November 15, 2023 2023-2024 News Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NOV. 15, 2023

The KHSAA Board of Control conducted its third regularly scheduled meeting of the 2023-24 academic year on Wednesday in Lexington, approving changes to the Swimming State Championship format and event implementation plans for the inaugural Indoor Track & Field and Girls’ Wrestling State Championships.

The Board approved the selection of Russell County High School (Regions 1-3), the University of Louisville (Regions 4-6) and Scott High School (Regions 7-9) as 2024 State First Round sites for Swimming and approved revisions to relay card procedures for the regional and state meet rounds to help address facility deck and crowd capacity concerns. 

The Board also approved the increase of the total number of qualifiers advancing from the swimming & diving region meets to the State First Round to 48 per event statewide, including approval of the format structure for those three first-round events. This will result in a total of a total of 24 competitors advancing from the first-round sites to the State Final Round in each event.

Parameters around the diving portion of the state meet will be finalized in the coming weeks but will closely mirror the processes and event structure that was in place for 2023. KHSAA staff will distribute more details to athletic directors and coaches to ensure clarity and consistency as final plans for swimming & diving are finalized.

The first Indoor Track & Field State Championships will take place March 1-2 at the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center in Louisville. With a shortage of indoor track facilities across the state to conduct qualifying region meets, the state championship meet will consider regular-season indoor performances for state qualification. The state meet will include the track events of 4x800m Relay, 60m High Hurdles, 60m Dash, 1500m Run, 400m Dash, 800m Run, 200m Dash, 3000m Run and 4x400m relay, as well as the field events of High jump, Long jump, Pole vault, Shot put and Triple Jump for both boys and girls.

The Board approved the utilization of the 12 existing NFHS girls’ wrestling weight classes, as well as a one-year trial of a 13th class of 285 pounds. This unique implementation will allow the continuation of girls’ wrestling by some of the students from the past years who exceeded the newly adopted NFHS classes but also allow for a sunset of that class if participation declines to a point where it is not feasible to conduct a championship competition. The Association noted in its request for experimentation that there was no data from past competitions indicating documented harm to participants in this higher weight class, and in fact, in prior years, the girls’ participants were compelled to utilize the boys’ heavier weight classes when wrestling in that boys’ competition, many times against heavier opponents.

“Staff has been working continuously not only to manage the existing championships but to facilitate the approved revisions to swimming and start these other two new championships in girls’ wrestling and indoor track & field,” said KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett. “It is an exciting time for the member schools and their students as these expanded and new opportunities come online this winter and respect the membership input process where those schools were asked for their wishes going forward.”

The Board approved the location for the Archery State Championships at the Central Bank Center in Lexington beginning in 2024, allowing for possible consideration of future expansion of the event field and a potentially shorter duration of the event to promote less overnight travel for participating schools.

The Board accepted the voting results following the distribution of a referendum regarding Bylaw 9 to member schools regarding restrictions on basketball players who have been in ninth grade and then played an interscholastic contest. By a vote of 131-37 in favor of the change, beginning in the fall of 2024, sports-specific restrictions will remain in place from the Oct. 15 start of practice through the end of the season but no longer apply in preseason after the start of the school year. This proposal will now start through the process necessary to adopt this change as state regulation.

Among other items, the Board reviewed the following for possible action at a later meeting with a request for additional plans at its January meeting:

• The implementation of season limitations and schedules for lacrosse and boys’ volleyball for 2024-25;
• A potential competition rule change in golf to implement circle scoring;
• A potential competition rule change in soccer to lower the threshold for ending a match early from a 10-goal lead after halftime to an eight-goal lead after halftime;
• A potential competition rule change in football to lower the threshold for the implementation of a running clock from a 36-point lead to a 35-point lead;
• A potential competition rule change in football to assess a class-based fine schedule for withdrawal from postseason play; and
• The parameters for implementation of football reclassification, which would be effective in 2025.

Additionally, the Board reviewed and accepted the following reports:

• Individual sport and sport-activity reports and non-sport-related reports from staff;
• A report of the Region 15 competition rules experiment;
• An officials’ licensing comparison and ArbiterSports update;
• Review of the implementation of an agreement with RefReps;
• A disqualification report and comparison;
• A transfer and appeals eligibility report as required by Board policy;
• A status of regulations promulgation and legislative discussions;
• A status report of the annual Bylaw 11 financial aid required reports;
• A status report on Bowling Green in compliance with the June 2022 agreed order; and
• A review of corporate sponsor finance reports.

– KHSAA –

About the Kentucky High School Athletic Association

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association was organized in 1917 and is the agency designated by the Kentucky Department of Education to manage high school athletics in the Commonwealth. The Association is a voluntary nonprofit 501(c)3 organization made up of 290 member schools, both public and non-public. The KHSAA awards 229 state championships to 59 teams and 178 individuals in 13 sports and six sport-activities, funds catastrophic insurance coverage for its more than 109,000 rostered member school student-athletes, provides coaching education and sports safety programs for more than 12,000 coaches and licenses and facilitates the distribution of training material for over 4,000 contest officials.