Referees Drop Kimble From 50 Freestyle

Pete Accardy was looking down at his heat sheet when the buzzer first sounded.

When the buzzer went off again Accardy, Cal State Northridge’s swim coach, looked up, saw Toady Kimble, and felt a measure of relief.

Kimble had been last off the starting platform for the 50-yard freestyle race in the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships. Fortunately, the start wouldn’t count.

“I was happy because she just got left there,” Accardy said Wednesday “I thought, ‘Great, we’ll get another shot.’ ”

Not exactly.

The second buzzer meant that someone had been disqualified. Unfortunately for CSUN, it was Kimble, the top-ranked freestyle swimmer in Division II.

Two of the three referees officiating the meet said that Kimble had moved on the starting platform. The disqualification might have cost Northridge as many as 20 points in its quest for a fourth consecutive women’s team title.

Kimble, who was visibly shaken, insisted that she had not leaned forward in the starting position.

“If anything, my legs might have shook when I grabbed (the underside of the platform) tighter,” she said.

Such a motion could constitute grounds for disqualification, Accardy said. But of the top-ranked swimmer? And in a preliminary race?

“The consensus of the coaches I talked to who saw it is that she was moving, but that she wasn’t the only one moving,” Accardy said. “The starter has been holding people extremely long, and in a race like the 50 free, those kids are keyed to go.

“In a championship meet like this, at no time should you hold the 50 free that long. If there is a reason to be holding, they should be releasing them and warning the person that is delaying the start. Really, that is the first time I’ve ever seen that called.”

Kimble, the defending national champion in the 100-yard freestyle, had the fastest qualifying time for 50 yards coming into the nationals.

Less than 30 minutes after her disqualification, Kimble swam a 23.1 50-yard freestyle leg in CSUN’s 200-medley relay preliminary race. In the final Wednesday night, she bettered that with a 22.9 as Northridge finished fourth.

Janine Etchepare of North Dakota won the 50 freestyle race in 23.65.

“I’m very confident that (Toady) would have won it,” Accardy said.

Kimble, however, already was focusing on the future. “All I know is that they’d all better be happy right now, while they can,” she said.

Kimble’s next individual event is the 200-yard freestyle on Friday.