Slow Clock Adds Critical Tick to CCAA Swim Marks

A faulty hookup in the electronic timing system at the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. swimming championships this week may cost Sandy Barnes of Cal State Northridge a chance to compete in the 100-yard butterfly next month at the NCAA Division II championships in Orlando, Fla.

CCAA meet officials discovered Saturday that the Cal State Bakersfield pool was mistakenly hooked up to a backup timing system, which is 15 hundredths of a second slower than the primary system.

The conference coaches, who asked that the timing system be checked when they found glaring discrepancies between the official times and their own hand times, voted to ask the NCAA next week for permission to subtract .15 seconds from the marks posted at the CCAA meet.

In terms of qualifying for the national meet, CCAA meet director Rich Firman said that about five or six swimmers could be affected by the NCAA’s decision.

Among them is Barnes, a sophomore from San Diego who won the 100 fly Friday in 59.39 seconds, just .10 seconds below the standard.

Barnes was unsuccessful in an attempt to meet the standard Saturday in a time trial at the conclusion of the meet.

“I’m pretty upset because, to tell you the truth, I really felt that I had gone faster,” she said afterward. “I came here wanting to give it my best shot and that’s what I thought I had done yesterday.”

Barnes said she was told of the faulty hookup after Saturday morning’s preliminaries, but was under the impression that .15 seconds would be subtracted automatically from her time.

CSUN Coach Pete Accardy told Barnes that the NCAA probably would not OK the change.

“So I had to get myself up when I already had it in my mind that I probably wouldn’t have to swim again,” Barnes said.

“I don’t think it’s fair. I totally disagree. I can’t believe they would actually penalize people because of the timing system.”

Said Accardy: “You can’t get upset about it until the NCAA says ‘no.’ I’m hoping they’ll say ‘yes.’ There’s no reason they shouldn’t, but you never know.”

Firman, an assistant coach at Cal State Bakersfield, said the timing system was hooked up correctly Wednesday at the beginning of the four-day meet. He speculated that someone may have kicked the plug out of its proper socket during the week and then re-connected it incorrectly.

Said Ernie Maglischo, Bakersfield coach: “I think it was plugged in wrong from the beginning of the meet, but nobody wants to admit it, so they say somebody tripped over it.”

The man who put the timing system together, pool technician Ron Richardson, would not comment.

If Barnes and the others lose their appeal to the NCAA, they still have another week to meet the qualifying standards. Barnes probably will swim in a meet next Sunday at East Los Angeles College.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Barnes, who probably will swim for CSUN’s 200- and 400-yard medley relay teams at the nationals. “This whole next week I’m going to have to taper, so I’ll only have two weeks to prepare for the nationals.”

The Cal State Bakersfield men and Cal State Northridge women won the team championships.

Bakersfield men won 15 of the 16 swimming events. CSUN, which has won five straight NCAA championships, failed to win an event.

Three CSUN women became two-event winners Saturday: Tracy Sweetland (50 and 100 freestyle), Stacy Mettam (100 and 200 backstroke) and Tina Schnare (100 and 200 breaststroke).

CSUN women won 14 of 18 swimming events, and CSUN’s Marion Gelhaus won both diving events.

Notes

Two more Cal State Bakersfield men met the standards Saturday for the NCAA Division II championships March 12-15 in Orlando, Fla. The Roadrunners now have 15 qualifiers. Coach Ernie Maglischo said two more may qualify in the next week. . . . CSUN Coach Pete Accardy said that Bakersfield will be “heavily favored” to unseat CSUN as national champion. CSUN will take 11 swimmers and four divers to Orlando. . . . Bakersfield easily outscored Northridge this week, 957 to 691. . . . The CSUN women won just as easily over runner-up Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 998 to 690.