WPIAL releases latest swimming and diving performance lists

By: Michael Love
Monday, January 25, 2021 | 1:21 PM

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Both battle-tested veterans and newcomers ready to burst onto the scene highlight the latest WPIAL Class AAA and AA swimming and diving performance lists released Monday.

The lists started to take shape with top performances from several meets Dec. 11, one day before Gov. Tom Wolf’s covid-related shutdown orders went into effect.

After a couple of days of practice when teams were able to return Jan. 4, swimmers and divers got back to competition and began adding their names to the lists.

The final performance lists for both swimming and diving are expected to be released Feb. 22, just a couple of days before the WPIAL diving championships at North Allegheny and one week before the WPIAL will stage the swimming championships.

The WPIAL swimming steering committee, headed by Moon teacher Jamie Morton, is scheduled to meet again Feb. 3 and hopes to provide additional information on qualifying numbers for the championship meets as well as where the meets will be located.

The WPIAL said it has been in communication with Pitt about returning to Trees Pool, but because of the restricted venue capacities under covid protocols and guidelines, holding the championships at other pools, including area high schools, have been discussed.

Faced with the lower-capacity possibilities, the WPIAL on Jan. 12 released changes to the qualifying standards for each Class AA and AAA swimming event. The new standards, markedly lower than the ones released before the season, are times which, if met, will guarantee the swimmer or relay an automatic place at WPIALs.

The WPIAL also has released provisional secondary qualifying marks, similar to ‘B’ cuts in college swimming, which would be used to help fill out the heats at WPIALs. Both the automatic and provisional times are listed on page 11 of the updated information page at WPIAL.org.

If the WPIAL establishes a set number of entries/heats for each event at WPIALs — for example, at 16 (two heats) or 24 (three heats) — those decisions could be finalized, Morton said, as early as the Feb. 3 meeting.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.