11/16/23 – Swimming Postseason Updates

November 16, 2023 Athletic Department Blog Updates

At its most recent meeting, the KHSAA Board of Control approved changes to the Swimming State Championship format.

First and perhaps most importantly, they approved an increase of the total number of qualifiers advancing from the swimming region meets to the State First Round to 48 per event statewide, including approval of the format structure for those three first-round events.

DIVING

• At this point, the intent is to run the diving portion of the state championships very much like 2023 due to participation levels.
• It is hoped that if efforts to get more kids out for diving, the diving events can be similar to the new swimming meet formula soon.
• At this point, statewide participation in diving is down from past years, despite more opportunities being created for diving these past few years.
• We can all work together to try and attract more students to this event.
• To be eligible to participate in the KHSAA Regional and State Diving meets, a contestant must have competed in at least four (4) diving meets on a team representing a member school.

REGION SWIM & DIVE

• Regional sites and dates are being collected from host schools and a tentative list can be found here: TENTATIVE HOST DATES/SITES.

CAPACITY DRIVEN CHANGES – RELAY CARDS

• One of the critical factors impacting the hosting of both the first-round meets and the state finals meet is deck capacity and stadium seating capacity, many of which have changed since 2020.
• In many cases, families have not been able to get into the facility to see their student-athlete compete due to these constraints or if they were able to enter, it was as late as the 500 Yard Freestyle event near the end of the meet.
• Some of that problem has been further exacerbated by the fact that teams have basically had unlimited access to participants to interchange on relay teams, some of which the coach had little to no consideration of these students actually participating.
• In almost all sports, a defined postseason roster limits coach options but clearly allows for flexibility due to injury, illness or coach performance-based decisions. While the meet revision format changes were being made, it was also time to revise that situation for both now and in the future.
• For 2024, coaches may designate (by the published deadlines) eight names from the school’s eligibility list (postseason roster) for the regional meet for each relay, and those lists cannot change after the published deadline or during the regional meet.
• If a relay team advances to the State First Round site, coaches may then, by the published deadlines and using the prescribed mechanism (likely an online form), designate the eight names from the school’s eligibility list (postseason roster) for the first round, which may not be changed for the remainder of postseason competition. 

STATE FIRST-ROUND SITES AND ADVANCEMENT FROM REGION TO STATE FIRST-ROUNDS

• As mentioned, the Board approved our recommended increase in the total number of the State First-Round qualifiers from 40 statewide in the previous system to 48.
• There will be no additional alternates beyond the 48.
• For 2024, the State First-Round sites were selected and approved. They are as follows:
  • Site #1 – Regions 1-3: Russell County High School
  • Site #2 – Regions 4-6: University of Louisville
  • Site #3 – Regions 7-9: Scott High School
• Each of these events would be contested as two-heat, timed finals in all swimming events at all first-round sites.
• There will be no team scoring in these first rounds as they will serve as qualifying meets for the state finals.
• For 2024 from Regions 1-3:
  • From Regions 1-3, the top 2 per region per event advance = 6 total
  • After the automatic qualifiers from each region, the next best 10 times from Regions 1-3 will also advance for a total of 16 at Site #1.
• For 2024 from Regions 4-6,
  • From Regions 4-6, The top 2 per region per event advance = 6 total
  • After the automatic qualifiers from each region, the next best 10 times from Regions 4-6 will also advance for a total of 16 at Site #2.
• For 2024 from Regions 7-9, 
  • From Regions 7-9, the top 2 per region per event advance = 6 total
  • After the automatic qualifiers from each region, the next best 10 times from Regions 7-9 will also advance for a total of 16 at Site #3.
• The grouping of regions (1-3, 4-6, 7-9) will continue to be reviewed for future years along with any consideration of re-arranging region composition to try and balance the size of meets where possible.

ADVANCEMENT FROM THE STATE FIRST ROUND TO STATE FINALS

• From State First-Round Site #1 (Regions 1-3), the top 3 competitors per event automatically qualify.
• From State First-Round Site #2 (Regions 4-6), the top 3 competitors per event automatically qualify. 
• From State First-Round Site #3 (Regions 7-9), the top 3 competitors per event automatically qualify. 
• After the 9 automatic qualifiers from each first round, the next best 15 times statewide per event will be at-large qualifiers.

The State Finals schedule is being updated, but the overall schedule will remain unchanged with prelims in the AM and finals in the PM on a single day per gender, following a state Diving Finals Day.

The entire release from the Board of Control meeting can be found here: https://khsaa.org/11-15-23-board-of-control-adopts-changes-to-state-formats-for-swimming-indoor-track-sets-state-archery-site-accepts-results-of-bylaw-9-amendment/

– 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.