Getting to state gets a little tougher

Like a swimmer moving down a water slide at an aquatic park, the qualifying times for Illinois' state swim meets keep moving lower and lower.

The amazing thing is that, so far, the athletes have been keeping pace.

A year after reducing the qualifying standard in 7 of the 11 swimming events, the IHSA this year has lowered 8 of the times swimmers need to reach at the state sectional meets in order to qualify for the state meet.

"The problem is that we have to raise the bar," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "Is it good for my kids? Maybe not. Is it good for the state? I can't deny that it is."

The use of lowering qualifying standards is much the same as using a cut in interest rates to curb inflation in the economy. If there are too many swimmers on deck, then the standards need to be reduced.

And with the quality of swimming in Illinois, there was going to come a point when it would be impossible to move on-deck during the state meet. So the time standards have been dropping.

Every 100-yard race has seen its time standard drop by a half-second or more in the past decade. The 200-yard races have seen larger drops while relay state cuts have been cut significantly. The 500-yard freestyle, the longest race in the Illinois high school swimming program, has seen its state cut go from 5:18.79 to 5:13.93 since 1997.

"We let it go and let it go and now it's all happening at once," Cabel said. "It's regretful that we don't have the facilities for handling large numbers of people. We don't in Illinois the way they do in Indiana and other states. It's a tough thing and we'll adapt to it."

Temporary bleachers are set around the New Trier and Evanston high school pools on state meet weekends. Those bleachers are packed, especially on Friday for preliminaries. Walking around the pool from the bleachers to locker room or to the starting blocks is a chore and is not for those who don't like being close to their fellow human beings.

In 1997, there were 374 entries in the girls state meet. A year ago, even with the decreased time standards, that number still stood at 390.

"The bottom like is that there's not a lot of deck space on those pools," Rosary coach Bill Schalz said. "The IHSA limited relays to 2 alternates and that eliminated 200 spectators off the pool area. It's still very difficult to get from the start end to the turn end. If they ever had a 50-meter pool setting with more lanes available, they might let those time standards loosen up or keep them where they are."

On Friday at state, swimmers compete for the right to swim again on Saturday. The top 6 swimmers compete for the championship and the next 6 swim for the consolation finals.

"It's my opinion that you don't need 8 or 9 heats to figure who your top 12 are," Schalz said. "A lot of people debate that, and I understand the debate."

The biggest problem with limiting on-deck entry to the meet is that there's almost no other way to see the meet. The gallery seating is always sold out and casual fans, or non-qualified swimmers, have to be lucky to get to see the meet.

"The more kids you get there, the more kids you get infected with the atmosphere," Cabel said. "And then they want to get back because it's the best atmosphere. But you also have to be able to walk around on deck. I think it'll be a better state meet because of the changes in the times."

One of the things that makes it possible to continue to lower the time standards is the quality of Illinois swimming.

"It's pretty unbelievable how fast our state meet is, especially if you look at the relay swims," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "Our girls medley relay was third in the state last year and something like 13th in the country."

Rooney says the lowered times may have an impact on the average swimmer trying to get to the state meet -- the swimmer who is on the borderline between qualifying or missing the meet.

The only meet at which a swimmer can qualify for the state meet is the sectional. A miss on that Saturday and there is no second chance.

"These times are great for the top-end kids and for the top-end schools," Rooney said. "But I think it's going to cause more people to rest and taper for sectionals. You'll see sectional times be quicker because with those borderline kids, if you have a doubt, you've got to shave them and get them to the state meet."

Swimmers "over-train" during the regular season, swimming exceptionally long yardage in twice-daily practices. Prior to the end of season championship meets, swimmers "taper" their workouts, and the rest they gain results in significant time drops. Timing a taper is a science the best teams use to perfection so athletes are at their peak when they need to be.

"It's not going to be different for the top-end kids," Rooney said. "Those kids were going to make it anyway. It's going to be different for the average kids."

Among the factors affecting the increased number of qualifiers -- and the resulting lowered time standards -- is the larger pool of quality teams in the state. Where the top athletes were concentrated on a few teams, there are now exceptional athletes on a number of teams. Schalz said that if you have a couple of those athletes, putting together a state qualifying relay is already half-accomplished.

That doesn't take away from the best teams or from the great teams of the past. But it means that there are perhaps 20 teams capable of finishing in the top 10, where once there were only 12.

"There have always been two or three teams capable of winning the state title in a given year, and that changes every year," Schalz said. "Every one of those years Jennifer Heyer's St. Charles teams won, they got up and swam well. We won the state meet last year and we had to get up and swim fast to do it. But the depth is really spread out and you didn't used to see that before."

There are great swimmers in the area this year. Whether Caitlin Dauw at St. Charles East, Taylor Reynolds at St. Charles North or Olivia Scott at Rosary, there are athletes who intend to swim in the championship heats of their respective races.

Cabel said the ebb and flow of times has much to do with the Olympic Games. One year from the 2008 Games in Beijing, Illinois is still feeling the positive effect of the 2004 Olympics and the performance by Michael Phelps.

"We had a great Olympics and it got a lot of press," Cabel said. "We have some swimmers, good or bad, who are making a lot of money in the sport. They all want to be like Michael Phelps and drive an Escalade."

But they will have to swim just a bit faster in order to qualify for that meet. Some may find levels they thought were impossible to reach.

"You will see kids who were under the state cut by a tenth of a second and now they're off by a tenth or two-tenths," Schalz said. "Now you have a goal. And if you're a senior who's never been to the state meet before, kids will swim through a brick wall to make that cut."