The Missouri Valley Conference will hold its swimming and diving championships in mid-April of 2021 due to the ongoing complications brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference confirmed to Swimming World. The championships dates have not been finalized but the meet will be held in Carbondale, Illinois on the campus of Southern Illinois after spending the last two seasons in Columbia, Missouri.
According to the conference, swimming & diving will not be the only championships to be changed.
The Missouri Valley has traditionally hosted the championships in February but with an already delayed season, the coaches favored pushing the meet back to April.
Dave Collins. Photo Courtesy: Angelo D Gelfuso
“The Athletic Directors of the Valley and the Commissioner’s Office approved our proposal to essentially move the season,” said Missouri State head coach Dave Collins.
Missouri State has won the last four MVC team titles. Swimming and diving is only a women’s sport in the Valley as the three schools that sponsor men’s swimming (Evansville, Missouri State, Southern Illinois) are co-members of the Mid-American Conference.
“We are excited about it,” Collins said. “We know that might take us out of any opportunity to be at the NCAA Championships – having our conference after the fact. But we felt comfortable this was for the betterment of the entire conference in allowing us to have something so we are going to just train in the fall, start meets in January. You have to have a minimum of five competition dates and a maximum of eight and that is basically going to go through and our championships will be in mid-April.”
Caitlin Hamilton. Photo Courtesy: Illinois State Swimming & Diving
“I’m proud of all the Missouri Valley Head Coaches in being able to work together with this proposal,” said Illinois State’s Caitlin Hamilton. “In taking initiative and control over moving our season, we were able to start planning and safely preparing our teams. Not to mention protect having some aspect of a season instead of making decisions day to day. I know our team is relieved and excited to have something to train towards!”
Members of the MVC include: Evansville, Illinois State, Indiana State, Little Rock, Missouri State, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois and Valparaiso.
As the COVID-19 pandemic causes uncertainty around the country with the status of the fall sports season, the winter sports season may have to be pushed back a couple months, and other conferences may follow the Missouri Valley’s lead and postpone their championships. If that is a trend that continues, then it is very possible that the NCAA meet could move back a couple months, but that may jeopardize the 2021 Olympic Swim Trials in June. The 2021 NCAA Division I swimming and diving championships are supposed to take place in Greensboro (women’s) and Iowa City (men’s).