There will be some major changes to the IHSAA’s winter sports post-season this year as the high school sports scene continues to work around the effects of COVID-19.
The sports of swimming and wrestling will be affected, especially at the state level. The IHSAA has information publicized on its website under each individual sport, as well in the minutes of its most recent Executive Committee meeting, which took place on Jan. 14.
In both girls and boys swimming, the state tournaments will still have a Friday-Saturday format, but with adjusted times. The girls swimming state finals are set for Friday, Feb. 12 and Saturday, Feb. 13, and the boys swimming state finals are scheduled for Friday, Feb. 26 and Saturday, Feb. 27, both at the IU Natatorium.
The Friday preliminaries will take place in two session. Swimmers that qualify for state from odd-numbered sectionals will swim at noon, while those from even-numbered sectionals will swim at 5 p.m.
Fishers, Hamilton Heights and Hamilton Southeastern compete in Sectional 8 for both girls and boys, with the girls competing in the Fishers sectional and the boys at Southeastern. Carmel, Guerin Catholic, Noblesville and Westfield compete in Sectional 9; the girls swim the sectional at Carmel and the boys at Noblesville. University’s swimmers compete in Sectional 12, with the girls at West Lafayette and the boys at Lafayette Jefferson.
The Saturday championships will also have two sessions. All of the diving – preliminaries, semi-finals and finals – will take place starting at 9 a.m. The swimming events begin at 3:30 p.m., with both the consolation and championship finals.
The IHSAA said on its website that there will be no spectators at either the girls or boys state finals “due to local health guidelines” and that all competition at both meets “will be streamed live at IHSAAtv.org”
TWO WRESTLING SESSIONS
The IHSAA hasn’t announced times yet for the wrestling state finals, which take place Friday, Feb. 19 and Saturday, Feb. 20 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The format will stay the same, with first-round matches on Friday and the top eight competing for state championships the next day.
In the Executive Committee meeting minutes, it was noted that the Friday matches “will likely be run in two separate sessions divided by weight class,” with the first session starting at noon and the second session starting at 7 p.m. “The facility will be cleared and cleaned between those sessions,” the minutes said.
Locally, the Elwood wrestling sectional will take place Saturday with no fans in attendance, according to the Elwood Athletics Twitter account. Guerin Catholic, Hamilton Heights and Noblesville will compete at that sectional.
