States Preview Coming

So, I haven't updated this blog hardly at all throughout the season, but I will be doing a bit of a states update and states information as the season finishes. I will hopefully have a states update tomorrow sometime.

2009-2010 Season Underway

With the first few meets already completed, the 2009-2010 high school swimming season has started, and while not much yet in the way of big meets, the preseason top 5 has been released by The News Journal. For the boys, Salesianum stands at number 1, not really a shock, and AI in second seems to be clearly the next best, although those teams do not swim each other in a dual meet. DMA is ranked 3rd, with Charter 4th, and again, those two won't swim each other in a dual meet, and I think Charter's depth, even with the loss of the graduated seniors from last year, plays to their advantage at the state meet. Brandywine is 5th, and they suffered a loss to Sallies earlier today, but for now, I don't see them losing the 5th place spot, although without many meets, I don't see anyone else looking to get in the top 4, the 5th place team being the one to change around throughout the season. St. Andrew's, usually a pick for the top few teams, faces what looks to be a rebuilding year, having graduated a relatively large group of seniors.
For the girls' side, Charter is, once again, the favorite, but don't put it past Tatnall to again give them a run for their money. Padua proved last year that they are a tough team, earning them the 3rd place rank. After losing today to Ursuline, Brandywine will most likely fall out of the top 5, maybe giving way to Ursuline. Newark in 5th will look to hold on to a top 5 spot, but I have a feeling those rankings will change a lot once the season gets underway, with no clear favorites for the 4th and 5th spots.
Best of luck to everyone with the beginning of the season, and as always, comments are welcomed, keep in mind I am 600 some miles away, so please forgive anything that may seem a little off in my analysis.

Links Updated; Follow on Twitter

The links on the right toolbar to past results from the state meet are now all functional - before some of the results were not uploaded properly. Also, the blog will now be posting updates on Twitter, follow it here. I don't know much about Twitter, so I'm not exactly sure how it will all work on there as well as here, but any suggestions are welcome.

NFHS: High-Tech Suits Banned

In my first update from Charleston, SC, the NFHS has officially banned high-tech swimsuits. In a press release dated August 11, 2009, it was determined that...

Effective immediately, swimmers shall be limited to one swimsuit, which shall be constructed of a woven/knit textile material, permeable to water and air, constructed so as not to aid in buoyancy, and shall not contain zippers or other fastening systems. In addition, the suit shall be constructed so that the style/shape for males shall not extend above the waist or below the top of the kneecap and for females shall not extend beyond the shoulders or below the top of the kneecap, and it shall not cover the neck.

Becky Oates, NFHS assistant director and liaison to the Swimming and Diving Rules Committee commented:

These high-tech suits had fundamentally altered the sport and become more similar to equipment, rather than a uniform. The rules of swimming have always prohibited the use or wearing of items that would aid in the swimmer's speed and/or buoyancy. The technical suits and styles had evolved to a point where there was little, if any, compliance with these basic rules...With new developments in the swimming community, the committee knew that in order to preserve the integrity, tradition and heritage of the sport, as well as protect and enhance the interscholastic swimming program, these new requirements were necessary to promote fair play and the educational values of high school and could not wait for another year. The immediate implementation date, including style, will help guarantee fairness in competition throughout the high school swimming seasons and allow meet officials to fairly and consistently enforce the rule.

For more on this, visit the NFHS rule change site here.

This should prove interesting for this season's state meet, considering many of last year's unprecedentedly fast times were recorded in suits that (while maybe not as extreme as some of those at the recent World Championships) will no longer be legal.

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NFHS on Suit Rule - No Changes...Yet

Becky Oakes, Assistant Director at the National Federation of State High School Associations, said in an email regarding the suit controversy:

The NFHS Swimming and Diving Rules Committee has not currently made any changes in the swimming rules regarding swimwear at this time. The committee chair and I are monitoring the developments as they unfold with FINA, NCAA and USA-S. We are maintaining direct communication with the NCAA and USA-S as these organizations are addressing the suit issue. The NFHS will keep the state associations informed of the new developments and any changes regarding the NFHS rules. This is a challenging issue for the swimming world in general. The NFHS Swimming and Diving Committee is very concerned of the impact the technical suits have had on swimming.

So, at this point, NFHS has not banned the suits, however, that could change in the near future. Also to note, if USA Swimming goes along with the FINA regulations, I would assume that in order to have a swim "observed" at the High School Championship Meet, regardless of the stance taken by NFHS, the swimmers would be forced to wear suits which comply with the USA Swimming rules. This should certainly be interesting to see how everything plays out over the next few months.

The Continuing Swimsuit Debate

At FINA's World Championship event, the latest in swimsuit technology definitely appears to be helping set numerous world records, but the future for these "supersuits" looks bleak. FINA, swimming's international governing body released the following statement from their recent meeting at the World Championship:

On its first meeting held today in Rome (ITA), the 2009-2013 FINA Bureau fully complied with the decision of the FINA Congress, held on July 24, 2009 related with the procedure concerning swimwear approval. As it was also decided by the Congress, these rules are now By-Laws rules, which allow the Bureau to further control, update and correct any deviation to the process or to proceed with any necessary adjustment related to the development of the swimsuit technology.

The FINA Bureau decisions on swimsuits include:

MATERIAL – The material of the swimsuits will definitively be constituted only by textile fabric(s). The definition of “textile” will be made by a group of scientific experts chosen by FINA and led by Prof. Jan-Anders Manson, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne (SUI). This definition will be available to manufacturers by no later than September 30, 2009. The first definition of “textile” to be further confirmed by this group is: “Material consisting of, natural and/or synthetic, individual and non consolidated yarns used to constitute a fabric by weaving, knitting, and/or braiding.”

SHAPE – For men, the swimsuit shall not extend above the navel nor below the knee, and for women, shall not cover the neck, extend past the shoulder, nor extend below knee. Furthermore, no zippers or other fastening system is allowed.

USE – In the regulation approved by the Congress, the swimmer can only wear one swimsuit and no taping is allowed.

TESTS – Only measurable scientific tests will be performed within the frame of the swimwear approval procedure. For thickness, the 1mm limit will be adjusted to 0.8mm, for buoyancy the present value of 1 Newton will be reduced to 0.5 (FINA will even consider the limit of 0 Newton), and for permeability the material(s) used must have at any point a value of more than 80l/m2/second. Permeability values are measured on material with a standard multidirectional stretch of 25%. These parameters will be further considered by the above mentioned scientific group.

CONSISTENCY – Swimsuits effectively manufactured and used shall correspond to and be fully consistent with submitted samples. Any modification before use (including impregnation) is prohibited. Moreover, there shall be no variation/modification for individual swimmers.

APPLICATION – Considering the time needed for manufacturers to produce their swimsuits, the submission dates and the implementation of the rules are applicable from 2010 only in Swimming competitions.

From what I have read, the rule change will probably not take effect until around April of next year, so as to give suit manufacturers the time to create suits within compliance of the new rules. As this is a recent rule change, USA Swimming (to my knowledge) has not yet changed their rules to reflect the international changes, but one can only assume that USA Swimming will soon enough follow in FINA's wake, just as they had announced over the past few months that they would agree to the same rules previously set out. I have sent an email to the National Federation of High Schools (governing body for High School Sports) regarding the rule change, and if I receive a response, I will post it here in an update.