Coronavirus concerns cause PIAA to postpone swimming, hoops championships for at least 2 weeks
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Concerns surrounding COVID-19, or the coronavirus, are now impacting Pennsylvania’s high school athletics, as the state’s governing body — the PIAA — announced Thursday that it was suspending both the state basketball tournaments and the swimming and diving championships.
The respective athletic events will be suspended for a minimum of two weeks and the PIAA Sports Medicine Committee will meet this weekend to discuss the issue further, according to the organization.
“The board of directors, in consultation with various health departments, believes this action is in the best interest of our member schools, their student-athletes, sports officials and the general public,” according the PIAA’s news release.
The announcement was made in the middle of Day 2 at the PIAA Class 3A Swimming & Diving Championships at Bucknell’s Kinney Natatorium. According to the PIAA, the Class 3A championships will end early — after Thursday’s mid-afternoon session, as opposed to the original time of 7:40 p.m.
That means Thursday’s finals and consolations set for the evening have been canceled. According to PIAA spokesperson Melissa Mertz, medals will instead be awarded based on Thursday morning’s preliminary results.
Based on the preliminaries, State College’s Matt Brownstead earned gold in the 100 freestyle with a time of 43.29 seconds, while teammate Foster Heasley placed eighth in the 100 breaststroke in 56.57.
The Class 2A swimmers and divers — who were scheduled to compete Friday and Saturday — were more out of luck. Many arrived Thursday for practice and check-ins, only to learn then they needed to turn around and return home.
Penns Valley, who traveled four swimmers to states, was one of those teams.
“I feel bad for the kids because they’ve been working really hard and looking forward to this,” said Rams coach Steve Duck, whose assistant coach had driven down with the team. “To get down there and be told it’s postponed, that’s just not good. And the way the virus has been going and things have been getting canceled, it wouldn’t be surprising if it does get canceled.
“I just feel bad for the kids.”
The number of presumptive positive coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania currently stands at 20, with two more confirmed cases, according to the state health department. As of Thursday afternoon, Pennsylvania has 13 COVID-19 cases in Montgomery County, two in Bucks and Monroe counties, and one each in Delaware, Northampton, Philadelphia, Pike and Wayne counties.
There are no confirmed cases in Centre County, as of press time Thursday.
No county teams remain alive in the PIAA girls’ or boys’ basketball tournaments, but those athletic teams faced challenges earlier this week. The Milton Hershey School was set to host two games on Wednesday, for example, but the school then refused to host due to coronavirus concerns. The games were rescheduled for Thursday but are now suspended.
“The board of directors are committed to promoting an environment of healthy athletic competition that is consistent with current health department and the Center for the Disease Control (sic) guidelines,” PIAA Executive Director Dr. Robert A. Lombardi said in a written statement.
This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 12:53 PM.
