- All-Star Team & Gold Star Award
- Due to readily available data at numerous locations including swimmeet.com, OHSAA.org, and NISCA High School Swimming All-American Lists, we've been able to put together annual all-star teams for much of Ohio high school swimming history. The all-star team itself looks at the top performers from the OHSAA Swimming & Diving State Championships (state meet) every season. The primary factor is state points scored based on a current top-16 meet scoring format of 20, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Therefore, a swimmer who was, for example, state runner-up in an event and 4th in another event, would finish with 32 points (17+15). For perspective, it's very rare for a swimmer with less than 30 individual points to make the all-star team. It should be noted that prior to 1993, the state meet was scored with just 6 swimmers in the final heat, but the current format translates appropriately considering it typically takes at worst, a 3rd or 4th place performance in both of a swimmer's events to make the all-star team. 10 swimmers make the all-star team each year for both girls and boys, and all event winners are automatic bids to the team. Given the 8 events (200 Freestyle, 200 IM, 50 Freestyle, 100 Butterfly, 100 Freestyle, 500 Freestyle, 100 Backstroke, and 100 Breaststroke), the remaining 2 to 6 at-large bids are usually decided by points scored based on above mentioned information.
The Gold Star Award goes to the leader of the all-star team and takes a very objective look at the best swimmers in the state for the season, again putting a huge focus on a swimmer's performance at the state meet. Arbitrary notes such as title defenses, upset victories by a swimmer in a close meet, and records broken were still taken into account when picking the best swimmer for each season, but the initial look was at state titles, state points, and if you beat your closest competitors for the award in a head-to-head race. NISCA national swimming rankings for public and prep schools go back almost 60 years so that extra data has been used to help break ties and make final decisions, but it should be noted that even data from official sources such as NISCA can still have downfalls. For example, Colorado has might have to deal with an altitude adjustment for their swimmers when turning in such rankings to a body like NISCA, and even then, there are swimmers whose times might have made All-American or Top 16, but just weren't turned in by their coaches that year. Still, these national rankings can tell a lot about a swimmer's relative performance. As an example, if there were two swimmers who each won both of their events at the state meet, but one of them had zero swims ranked top 20 nationally while the latter set a national record, it's pretty safe to bet that the latter swimmer will take home the award.
- Historical Format of the State Meet
- To better make sense of the award winners, it helps to understand how the state meet was run throughout its history. Today, swimmers are allowed to swim 2 individual events and participate on 2 relays, or a single individual event and all 3 relays. In the early 1970's, swimmers were only allowed to swim a total of 2 events. This could be 2 individual events, or 1 individual event and 1 relay, or just 2 relays. Starting in 1975, swimmers were allowed to swim 3 total events with a max of 2 of those being individual swims. This format continued until 1991 when the 200 Freestyle Relay was added to the meet. From that point forward, the current format has been used with the aforementioned 4 events with a max of 2 individual per swimmer.
Something else to note is that after 1999 for girls and 2008 for boys, Ohio swimming split into 2 divisions. For the All-Star team, points are based on a combined result. That means that if a swimmer won an event in Division 2, but was beaten by 3 swimmers in Division 1, then that swimmer had just the 4th best time in Ohio that year, resulting in a 4th place finish, or 15 points. That is the system used for determining the All-Star team. Unfortunately, that means that you could be a state champion for your division but still not make the all-star team if your overall Ohio ranks aren't good enough (because the true champion is the swimmer with the fastest time). Still, we recognize that winning a race takes a skill so while it may be a shame that a swimmer didn't have a chance to race their counterpart from the other division for the Ohio title, we take note of close results when putting together the All-Star teams. A good example of this is Cincinnati St. Xavier's Grant House. From 2014-2017, House never lost an individual event at the state meet, but after having factored in the division 2 times, House only came out with the best Ohio time in 5 of his 8 swims. Of those 3 ‘losses', House's Division 1 winning time was barely behind the faster Division 2 swimmer. Not to discredit those Division 2 champions, but a swimmer like House, who never lost a direct head-to-head race, very well may have come through had he been given the chance to race his division 2 counterparts. While we can't credit House with the top Ohio time in those 3 instances, it just needs to be noted that this type of situation gets its due attention when determining the awards.
One final note is that relays did not count directly towards a swimmer's chance of making the all-star team, but 'good' results were still noted and occasionally helped sway the decision for whether a swimmer made the all-star team.
Contact Rob Jackson at rjackson@swimmeet.com with any questions or thoughts.
