'Mini-state' meet during the season an interesting possibility

The biggest boys swimming meets of the season are about to begin, bringing with them the excitement, the pressure and the drama that make for incredible performances and memories for all who are lucky enough to experience them.

What's interesting is that, as intense as the atmosphere is, no one tries to accurately give swimmers a chance to feel that kind of pressure before the end of the season.

There are, to be sure, a myriad invitational formats throughout the state. Some allow limited entries per event, others allow each team a wide number of entries. Some are relay-only events and others include college-length events. At Evanston, they use a performance-based point system where fast times are rewarded with high point totals, regardless of a swimmer's placing.

But none of these sets the stage for the state meet, which annually hits first-time qualifiers like a ton of bricks and rewards those who have experienced the tight quarters on-deck, the heat of the area and the cacophony of sound that rains over the athletes from the spectators who sit above like some gladiatorial festival.

So why is this? Surely it's been discussed at some point. To discuss this, I sat for a bit with Marmion coach Bill Schalz, whose own invitational is noted for its brevity. Each race has one heat and breaks are needed to keep the meet from ending in an hour.

"You have a lot of teams that will swim a dual meet on Friday night and swim an invitational on Saturday," Schalz said. "I understand why people will do that. It's just my personal opinion that it's overrated."

To Schalz, the atmosphere at the Illinois state meet is difficult to replicate in an invitational setting.

"What makes the state meet so intense is that it's six and 12 and not eight and 16," Schalz said.

What Schalz is referring to is the setup of the finals at the state meet. Only the top six swimmers get to swim for the state title while the next six swim for the consolation championship.

This is due to the fact that there aren't eight lanes at both state sites. This tightened requirement for the state races makes Friday the night when the state meet is usually won.

As proof, the number of state records set on Friday in Illinois exceeds the number established on Saturday. And according to Schalz, less than 20 percent of qualifiers have faster times on Saturday than on Friday.

Larger pools have eight or 10 lanes and allow for an eight and 16 setup for on the first night. Those extra two spots mean quite a lot as swimmers seek to advance to Saturday's action.

"With top eight, you've got three swimmers in many events who can get through easily and can cruise through prelims. With top six, you don't have that luxury. No one does," Schalz said.

There is, of course, an elite group of swimmers who are still nearly assured of making finals. Neuqua Valley's Kevin Overholt, for example, is far and away the fastest freestyler in the state this year. But even he will have to make sure he swims quickly on Feb. 27 at New Trier. No one wants to take the risk that they miss out.

In an invitational setting, if you put that kind of restriction on qualifying for finals, the risk is that a team travels on Friday and ends with almost no one advancing to Saturday.

"Is a high school team going to come and risk not having any finalists, when they've already cost themselves a competitive date in the process?" Schalz asked.

As St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney pointed out, such a format would count as two meets under IHSA rules. So a team that gets shut out in not having Saturday qualifiers loses a meet but also has a competitive date in which none of its athletes compete.

Trying to provide that pressure in a midseason invitational is difficult. There are huge invitationals, of course. Evanston hosts one, New Trier hosts another while Stevenson has another of the classic invitationals at its pool.

One thing holding back Illinois is the same thing that keeps the state meet in its current settings - the lack of a pool ready and able to hold such a meet. Given the concentration of top schools in the Chicago area, the meet would have to take place somewhere in the suburbs - or even in Chicago. Northwestern or Illinois-Chicago are possible hosts, but whether or not either university would want to host such a meet is questionable.

"If you had a quality facility - maybe one that had a 10-lane pool where you could run a lot of races and you had eight and 16 and you could get a lot of people back, then it might work," Schalz said.

Schalz added that renting such a facility would be expensive - though a gathering of many of the state's top teams would certainly draw fans and that would sell a lot of T-shirts and hot dogs.

The thing is, it still wouldn't quite work as a prelude for the state finals. But it would provide an amazing in-season meet experience. Boys soccer has its Pepsi Shootout and girls soccer has a Best of the Midwest tournament. There are various basketball showcase events such as Batavia's Night of Hoops where a number of the best teams gather for one special day of competition.

Swimming waits until the end of the year for everything.

Maybe, at least for the moment, that's as it should be. But in the future, it's just this writer's feeling that it would be incredible to have a midseason "mini-state meet."