UC San Diego notified the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Thursday the Tritons’ swimming and diving programs will not compete in the regular season this winter in part because of the resources required to properly safeguard the health and well-being of all the school’s athletes.

“This wasn’t an easy decision to make, as a matter of fact, it is very hard to lose another college competition season after the cancellation of our NCAA meet this past March,” said the Tritons’ coach Marko Djordjevic.

“On the positive side, we believe that this is in the best interest of our scholar-athletes, because we are going to continue with practice in the safe environment of our campus and focus on long course meets during this spring and summer with the conclusion of the season with Olympic trials meet.”

Members of the men’s and women’s teams will continue to train at Canyonview Aquatic Center, and UCSD still intends to provide competitive opportunities for swimmers and divers to compete and qualify for national and international events.

UCSD athletics will look to host inter-squad time trials to allow its scholar-athletes the chance to record official times to qualify them for future spring and summer national meets.

“I really hope that this will bring some peace and clarity to the team so we can continue preparing for our long-term goals and hope that we will have a much different and better season in the fall of 2021,” Djordjevic said.

The Tritons begin their four-year transition to Division I this season and intend to complete the transition in the 2024-25 academic year. During the team’s final season in Division II, both of the men’s and women’s programs were ranked as high as first in the nation. A total of 26 swimmers and divers received All-American honors last season.

— City News Service

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