PIAA moves state swimming, diving championships to high school venue

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, January 28, 2021 | 12:02 AM

The state swimming championships are changing lanes.

The PIAA board voted to move this winter’s state swimming and diving meet to Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg. Covid-19 gathering limits led the PIAA to find a host site other than Bucknell, PIAA associate executive director Melissa Mertz said Wednesday.

Diving finals will be March 13 with swimming March 19-20. No spectators are allowed.

The move was made official Wednesday, as long as Bucknell releases the PIAA from its contract.

Mertz said Bucknell’s Kinney Natatorium can hold only 110 people under current gathering limits. Counting athletes alone, the PIAA expects to have around 125, not including coaches or officials. Also, Bucknell won’t be on spring break at that time, she said, limiting the university facilities available for PIAA use.

Cumberland Valley has experience hosting the PIAA District 3 meet.

“They’re very familiar with running swimming and diving championships,” Mertz said. “A couple of things that made it very attractive to us was we have use of so many facilities within their building. The fact that we can use their auxiliary gym, we can use their cafeteria and we can use their auditorium, gives us flexibility on spacing people out.”

Among other winter sports:

• The PIAA competitive cheer championship was scheduled for April 10 in Hershey.

• Basketball teams listed higher on the bracket can host playoff games in the state tournament, assuming the two opponents share the same side of the state, the PIAA board decided. That policy applies through the semifinal round. The PIAA took the same approach with football in the fall.

• The PIAA approved March 7 as the district deadline for team wrestling, but didn’t set a date for the team wrestling championships. The PIAA plans to hold the team championship sometime after the individual meet.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.