CHAPEL HILL—Several state championships in two different sports will be up for grabs this weekend in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.
The 20h annual NCHSAA state indoor track and field championships are set for Saturday at the Eddie Smith Indoor Arena on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Field events are scheduled to start at eleven o’clock Saturday morning, the sprints at noon, and then the ovals races at around 1 p.m.
West Charlotte is the defending men’s indoor track champion, earning the 2005 crown after back-to-back titles by North Rowan. On the women’s side, Charlotte’s Harding University is the defending champ and last year broke a string of four consecutive state championships by Winston-Salem Mount Tabor.
The NCHSAA indoor track and field championships are an open event, with schools from all four classifications competing for one title.
Both the 3-A and the 4-A swimming and diving championships will be contested this weekend. The 3-A schools will compete at the Willis Casey Aquatic Center on the N.C. State University campus in Raleigh, while the 4-A classification will do battle at the Koury Natatorium in Chapel Hill.
Diving competition will be held on Friday afternoon starting at 2:15 p.m. Koury Natatorium will be the site for all of the diving for both 3-A and 4-A.
The swimming is scheduled to start Saturday morning with preliminaries at 9:15 a.m. Swimming finals at both locations are slated to get underway Saturday at 5 p.m.
NCHSAA swimming and diving includes some long streaks of success, at least some of which will be changed in this year’s championships. Raleigh Enloe is gunning for its eighth consecutive men’s 4-A team championship, while Charlotte Providence has won seven of the last eight 4-A women’s crowns, including the last two.
East Chapel Hill has been the dominant program in 3-A swimming, with a current string of eight straight men’s titles and seven consecutive women’s championships. However, Wildcat teams won’t add to that streak at the 3-A level because this year East Chapel Hill is competing in 4-A, so there will be new champions in the 3-A classification.
Wendy’s and the Carolinas Ford Dealers are the presenting sponsors of the NCHSAA sports program.
