MIAA allows Western Mass qualifiers to swim at State Meet

MIAA officials released a statement prior to the unsanctioned Western Mass girls swim meet today in Westfield saying all swimmers in the entire state who had qualifying swim times at their respective sectionals meets will now automatically qualify for the state meet as well.

When news of a cancelled Western Mass meet was announced last Saturday, many in Berkshire County were in disbelief, including Monument Mountain Swim Coach Jill Svirida.

Svirida felt devastated by the news of forgoing a Western Mass meet as her swimmers, such as Rowan Rice, senior Anna Zdziarski and Will Palmer, were just short of qualifying for the state meet in certain events.

Rice, who had a qualifying time on a club team, had trained the entire season to build up for the Western Mass Meet in order to earn her personal best time. Palmer was fractions of a second short on another event.

This latest ratification will put those swimmers in the state event this weekend.

For more information on the upcoming state swim meet and the fortitude of the Western Mass swim community, who helped bring an unsanctioned event to Western Mass, check out this week’s Berkshire Beacon, on newsstands and online Thursday evening.

Posted by Tim Davis on February 11, 2013. Filed under Breaking News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry