New Jersey Delays Start of HS Swimming Season until February | SwimSwam

By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletics Association (NJSIAA) has postponed the start of its high school swimming season until February 1, 2021, with no state-sponsored post-season events planned.

Swimming, along with winter track & field, will be part of a newly-created “Season 2A”. Practices may begin on February 1st, competition may begin on February 16th, and competition must end by March 27th.

Like with other winter season sports, there will be no NJSIAA sponsored post-season, though local leagues and conferences may organize post-season play at their discretion.

Schools can compete in up to 3 events per week and a maximum of 15 total throughout the season.

The swimming & diving season was originally scheduled to begin on November 9, and was headed for its typical early-February start of the state championship tournament.

The NJSIAA says that the delay of the start of the season was made after receiving feedback from member schools about a lack of facility availability across the state. The state says that they hope that more pools will be available to member pools beginning in February.

While indoor pools are currently allowed to be open in New Jersey, capacity is limited to 25% of indoor capacity and lap swimming is restricted to either one direction or one swimmer per lane. That has led to limited availability of indoor water time as winter sets in across the state.

New Jersey, like most states, has seen an increase in new coronavirus cases, averaging over 3,700 new daily positive tests, and rising. That makes a new record high for the state, surpassing the numbers in April, when New Jersey was one of the nation’s hotspots for the early wave of infections.

daily reported deaths (an average of 27 over the last week) and hospitalizations (2,446 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state on Wednesday) have also risen, though they remain well below the peaks early in the pandemic.

Cherry Hill East are the defending boys’ and girls’ Public A state champions for the state’s top schools. The defending Public B champions are the boys from Montgomery High School and the girls from Moorestown, while the Public C defending champions are the boys and girls from Haddonfield.

Christian Brothers won last season’s Non-Public A title for boys, while Immaculate Heart won the same for Girls. Pingry and Trinity Hall are the Boys and Girls defending Non-Public B state champions, respectively.

Read the full story on SwimSwam: New Jersey Delays Start of HS Swimming Season until February