The PIAA, which governs most high school athletics in the state of Pennsylvania, has released more details about how the modified 2021 High School State Championship meets will be parsed out.
After announcing last week that the meet would be moved from its original location at Bucknell University to the Cumberland Valley High School pool because of capacity limitations, the league has announced more details about other changes that will happen.
Districts will have until March 7 to complete their district championship meets, with an extension to March 8 allowed only in the case of inclement weather.
Diving championships will be held on March 13 and include only those divers who won their district championships.
This will create some heated district battles, because, for example, the top returning diver Conor Gesing from Abington High and 3rd-best returning diver Luke Dotson from Council Ridge North High School both compete in district 1, as does the 6th-best returning diver Paxton Flandro from Souderton High School.
There are 12 districts in Class AA and 12 districts in Class AAA, meaning that all scoring spots in diving won’t be filled.
In cutting the number of qualifiers per swimming event from 32 per event to 16 per event, the PIAA estimates that there will be about 125 people in the building on any given day (including coaches and officials) at the state meets. That’s more than the 110 that Bucknell was allowing at its facility.
For the Swimming competitions, Class 2A will have the state meet on Friday, March 19, while Class 3A will be held on Saturday, March 20. All events will be timed finals.
The girls will swim in the morning on each day. That makes the full schedule:
- Class 2A Girls Swimming – Friday, March 19 (Morning)
- Class 2A Boys Swimming – Friday, March 19 (Afternoon)
- Class 3A Girls Swimming – Saturday, March 20 (Morning)
- Class 3A Boys Swimming – Saturday, March 20 (Afternoon)
While there won’t be spectators for the swimming competition, in an effort to remain within the Department of Health occupancy directives, the PIAA says they may be able to permit a few spectators for diving.
The 2020 PIAA State Championships were happening on the fateful mid-March weekend that wound up being the zero hour for the coronavirus pandemic and quarantines in the United States. The AAA (big schools) meet, which came first, finished one day of prelims and finals, and stalled out mid-day the next, leaving day 2’s results as a defacto timed finals event with the original prelims results.
The Upper Dublin girls beat out North Allegheny by 2 points for the AAA title, while LaSalle College High School dominate the boy’s meet, scoring 162 points. North Penn was 2nd with 118.5.
The most recent AA champions are the Villa Maria High School girls and Cathedral Prep boys from 2019.
The PIAA Diving Championships are on March 13, and PCN is covering them. New this year: we are streaming final dives live with PCN Select at 9:20 AM. They will also air at 5 PM on cable in PA and streaming.
The final heats of the PIAA Swimming Championships will air live on cable and streaming March 19-20.
See the full schedules at pcntv.com/dive or pcntv.com/swim.
Question??? How are they only allowing 12 divers to go to states??? That is ridiculous! Some districts don’t even have divers, so there will be like 9 or 10 competing in AA and AAA. Why would you even cut the diving numbers, they only bring 24 anyway?? Way to assist in ruining the kids season more!! Other states are not doing this. It is sad our kids have to travel out of state to train. Bad decisions all around!!
Can’t we all just be happy that we have a State Champ meet. Not sure why we keep talking about the Explorers, the fastest times are from District One and always have been. #noRecruiting_in_Lansdale
If the PIAA is only taking 16 per event then all places should be taken at large. The fastest 16 in the state go no matter what their district!! Make if fair for the kids that deserve to be there.
I hope to see some wonderful articles about the GHSA state meet as the week continues! The meet starts tomorrow and will last till Saturday. The safety plan is magnificent and there should be some amazing competition and fast swimming!
What a bunch of whiners. Many states have no high school swimming at all this year. A few are limited to dual meets only. Did I read a comment where somebody was whining about having to swim 4 events in a measly 3 hours. Poor poor baby. We typically swim our championship meet in 1 day trials/finals. 8 Races for those on relays. Finals usually lasts under 2 hours (no diving). We also have one of the fastest meets in the country. Alas – cancelled for this year. Maybe a few PA athletes will give up their spot and we can come swim there.
At least you guys have finals. Maybe PA should take some pointers from your state (VA obviously) and stop cancelling finals
We aren’t whining, simply disappointed. Don’t get me wrong though, I am extremely grateful we are even having a meet and applauding PIAA for their efforts.
PIAA teams are lucky to be getting a championship meet as the inter ac gets nothing. Btw if the Inter ac best went against the best of PIAA it would be no contest for the girls and the boys wouldn’t be much closer. Inter ac rules!!!
Lasalle College High School can go take their plastic mickey mouse state championship and celebrate already! It’s impossible for any other team to win this year with the new State selection policy. 8 automatic spots are going to be taken per event, including 2 or 3 from extremely weak districts, containing kids with this times that are not on par with their fellow state qualifiers. Luckily, Lasalle College High School swims in their own district 12, which is an intrasquad meet for them! So they win every event, therefore qualifying a swimmer into states in every event. On top of that, it seems that they have recruited Zach Kohm, an Olympic Trials qualifier, to transfer from Germantown Academy. I don’t… Read more »
I know you think that this comment makes you look tough, but in reality it makes you look like a whiner and a sore loser.
Every. Last. Word. of. it.
No everything that person said is facts and every PUBLIC SCHOOL swimmer in PA knows it. They belong in the inter-ac and the Easterns, not PIAA States.
Such a disrespectful comment especially to those kids who earned the right to be there.
Lol your definitely just a triggered North Penn swimmer. Stay mad and stay irrelevant you sore loser. You’ll never win.
LaSalle has a very strong team. But as a private school, they can recruit swimmers without the geographic boundaries that define public schools. They really should compete with those private schools in Easterns.
If only there WERE an Easterns this year… 🙁
La Salle is unable to recruit due to school rules, just like every other school in PIAA. But La Salle does not need to recruit, every swimmer in the state knows what an amazing program it is and how dominant they have been. The swimmers there work just as hard and earn their spot in the state championship. And you’re talking about this “rich private school”, I don’t know of any other teams that win state championships out of a small 4 lane pool. Students have the decision to seek out an amazing education, while also becoming better swimmers, not something a lot of other schools in the state can offer.
The top 8th grade swimmers in the Mid-Atlantic have consistently gone to La Salle. On top of that, two swimmers who committed to Georgia just transferred there. Whether or not they did recruit, it’s not about their hard work or a 4 lane pool. Their best swimmers get a free pass to states because of how weak District 12 is. LSCHS should go to Easterns, not PIAA. I have no doubt the state championships will be a blowout this year. One again La Salle will be jumping into the the pool with their trophy. Other private schools at Easterns have wise coaches, not a chemistry teacher at public school. The PIAA standards for a school like La Salle are nonexistent… Read more »
Most lasalle swimmers don’t train in their little 4 lane pool. They are all club swimmers and train with their club, a normal 8 lane pool.
Not true. They swim every afternoon November through March in their 4 lane pool. Some swimmers do morning practice only at club.
LOL. Having a son who went there, I have heard several parents and swimmers from public schools complain. You want to be part of this amazing school and program, it’s a choice, spend the money to go there!
That’s a really privileged stance, just what I’d expect from a rich private school parent. Many Schools don’t even have pools and many families can’t afford to pay that kind of money. The problem is that Lasalle can just get pay to win transfers from within MA, while public schools have to develop their programs from ground up and pray for talented kids that just so happen to live within the 10 mile boundaries of their school district.
#Lasalle_is_ptw
So dumb how it’s timed finals. At this point, the every graduating class in PA for the past 5 years has experienced their State meet getting truncated in some form. First, the 2017 snow cancellation, then the 2020 finals cancellation, and now this stupid format. I know the PIAA can do better than this, it’s not that hard to at least separate the meet into 2 days! This new formatting totally ruins the point of a “High School Championship Meet”, States is basically a dual meet now! PIAA used to have one of the most competitive State meets in the country because everyone took it really seriously; I am curious to see if the fastest guys in PA will take… Read more »