Indiana University’s indoor Olympic-sized pool, the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center, has been drained and out-of-commission since late July, the school confirmed to SwimSwam Tuesday.
The pool has been closed since July 23rd, when while undergoing its yearly maintenance and repairs, it was discovered that “multiple pool flanges” had deteriorated and were unusable. The parts needed to repair the pool are custom-made, and take multiple weeks to make and ship.
Post-grad Olympian Blake Pieroni was bummed upon his return home from Nationals and Pan Pacs:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmiuzcsFHh5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
The school is targeting October 1st to reopen the pool. In the meantime, the undergrad and post-grad teams will continue to practice in the outdoor 50-meter pool, and will have occasional use of the indoor 25-yard Royer Pool a the IU School of Public Health.
If the pool does reopen on schedule, it likely won’t affect the college team’s plans. Indiana did not participate in any NCAA meets until October 20th last year, but the 2018-2019 schedule has yet to be released.
IU’s pool opened in 1996, making it middle-of-the-pack in the scheme of Big Ten pool age. Michigan State (1957), Wisconsin (1967), Penn State (1967, but new plans announced), Nebraska (1976), Northwestern (1987), Michigan (1988, 1998 renovation), Minnesota (1990), and Rutgers (1991) are the schools that currently have older pools. Maryland (1998), Purdue (2001), Ohio State (2005), Illinois (2008), and Iowa (2009) opened more recently.
Wisconsin’s new aquatic center is under construction and supposed to open for 2019-2020.
There is enough water at IU to keep them going. It might be a very good thing to have them train in a less than idea facility for a little while. This isn’t going to cause Indiana to lose any recruits, have anyone transfer, lose any meets they otherwise would have won. It is a bit of an inconvenience but that’s about it.
That’s karma for ya
IU used to use the outdoor pool into October. I don’t think it will be much of a change for them. It’s a good facility, and the Southern Indiana weather doesn’t get cold until around Halloween anyway.
Mid-day? Yeah, October’s typically still pretty comfortable. But at the butt-crack of dawn when these guys and gals usually practice? Averages mid-40’s. Throw a bit of a breeze into the equation, and swimming outside sounds outright miserable.
Interesting that Tennessee’s pool is also drained and being replastered as school starts up. They have another indoor 50m pool though. https://www.instagram.com/p/BmldPuBB_Cw/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=v1ihtie95um8
The joys of being Tennessee…
I heard it was the fetzer valve – pretty easy fix you just need liquid ball-bearings.
Don’t know why they don’t just use several hydrocoptic marzelvanes fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft. Pretty straightforward, really.
Indiana is lucky to have a nice outdoor facility that they can use while it’s still warm in September. Is the diving tank still open at the indoor pool? I assume they could use that as well if weather is bad and they can’t fit the entire team in the Royer pool.
That duck pond, er….outdoor pool looks AMAZING on GoogleMaps.
I actually swam there recently, and it’s pretty nice for an outdoor pool! Nothing fancy though.
I’m sure the pic I saw was from the winter, and the swimmers probably prefer swimming outside anyways. I know I do and so do my kids. I was just envisioning Pieroni and the rest of the swimmers showing up with their gear and having it look like the Colorado campground pool in the original Griswold Vacation road trip to Wally World.
Yeah – other than not being deeper than 4 or 5 feet it’s not a bad place to train – 10 lanes. Locker rooms could use some work though
Illinois main pools were renovated in 2008 but they are much older than that.
Agreed. I swam a meet at the ARC in 1986. Was there recently again. It hasn’t materially changed.