{"id":461325,"date":"2021-02-04T07:37:38","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T14:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=461325"},"modified":"2021-02-04T07:37:38","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T14:37:38","slug":"prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Prestigious Easterns Champs Adopting a Virtual Leaderboard Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For members of the Easterns steering committee, two things became abundantly clear early this winter season.<\/p>\n<p>The first was that collecting dozens of independent private schools from throughout the Eastern seaboard for a meet, some 800 swimmers, would be impossible in a COVID-19 era. The second, equally clear, is that the Easterns powers wouldn\u2019t put the meet in a one-year deep freeze.<\/p>\n<p>The compromise is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.easternswimminganddiving.org\/meet-information\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eastern Interscholastic Championships virtual leaderboard<\/a>, where schools that would normally compete at the event can submit times to measure their athletes against their peers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was never a matter of whether or not we were going to do something. It was a matter of, what can we do?\u201d said <strong>Jeff Thompson,<\/strong> the head coach at Germantown Academy and a member of the Easterns Committee. \u201cThe thought never crossed our minds to not to something. The tricky part was just figuring out how to be fair and understanding to all the teams that normally come to the meet. \u2026 I couldn\u2019t imagine a year without some kind of Easterns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the two obvious conditions met, there was one other line that the Easterns committee \u2013 led by Thompson, Peddie School coach <strong>Greg Wriede<\/strong> and Mercersburg Academy coach <strong>Glenn Neufeld<\/strong> \u2013 had to walk. How could they make things both important and special for the athletes, but also fair in being respectful of the different stages of pandemic restrictions in force across the country?<\/p>\n<p>Easterns annually welcomes schools from New England to Virginia (plus, of late, Warwick Academy in Bermuda) to the meet. It&#8217;s usually held in February in the Philadelphia region \u2013 first at La Salle University for years with Germantown Academy as the meet&#8217;s steward, but the last five years at Franklin &amp; Marshall College in Lancaster. The result is some of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/reece-whitley-scares-200-im-national-independent-school-record-at-easterns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fastest high school swimming<\/a> in the country, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/reece-whitley-discusses-100-breast-record-swim-easterns-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">including the occasiona<\/a>l national age-group record or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/david-curtiss-goes-19-42-sets-national-prep-record-in-50-free-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">national prep mark<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The conditions and government restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic look drastically different over that swath of the country. Some boarding schools (like Mercersburg) remain all virtual. Some day schools will have an abbreviated winter season. Some are pushing their winter seasons into the spring.<\/p>\n<p>Plotting regional meets was a possibility, but the challenges remained, even before considering the fairness of how long some kids would be in the water and the usual, weather-related training irregularities that reintroduced themselves to the East Coast with this week\u2019s snowfall.<\/p>\n<p>So the committee <a href=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/583d85fc6a49631ee368a2c6\/t\/5ff75a6e17d3e26f81c53ea9\/1610046063037\/Eastern+Interscholastic+Swimming+and+Diving+Virtual+Leaderboard.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">settled on the leaderboard<\/a>: From now through June 1, schools can conduct meets at their leisure and submit times. The times have to come in approved meets (officials are \u201cencouraged\u201d but that sign off rests with the athletic director) and be timed on pads. The events follow the eight individual events of high school meets plus diving, and schools are permitted one relay entry per event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsidering Easterns is the oldest running prep school meet in the country dating back to 1935, it allowed us to keep the event alive and not just scrap it and say, \u2018this year it\u2019s not going to work; there\u2019s not going to be an in-person event,\u2019\u201d Wriede said. \u201cIt keeps it active for those kids, it keeps it active for those seniors that are graduating this year to possibly get up on the leaderboard and see themselves recognized not only for this year\u2019s work but for the four years of work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The format means that Easterns continues in spirit even if it can\u2019t in person. Some things have to change: For instance, Easterns won\u2019t crown a team champion, using the leaderboard instead only for individual comparison. The time span accounts for differences in training, allowing flexibility to have a semi-normal ramp up to post fast times if training disruptions ease.<\/p>\n<p>The idea follows USA Swimming\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/usa-swimming-launches-virtual-meet-simulator-as-part-of-return-to-competition-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">push for virtual meets<\/a> over the summer and instituting of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/finalized-usa-swimmings-winter-18-under-national-championships-mens-leaderboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Under-18 virtual leaderboard for boys<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/finalized-usa-swimmings-winter-18-under-national-championships-womens-leaderboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">and girls<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did not have to reinvent the wheel entirely, but just customize it and specify the school things,\u201d Neufeld said. \u201cI think the inspiration just comes from all of us in the sport wanting to give kids opportunities, and many of those opportunities have been virtual or limited in size and scope. It hasn\u2019t been fun for anybody, but we\u2019re trying to inject at least a little bit of fun or excitement to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One possible opportunity is extending Easterns\u2019 reach. Many of the schools that compete use it as their championship meet, like schools in Pennsylvania (Mercersburg, Germantown Academy and the other Inter-Academic League schools) and Peddie in New Jersey that don\u2019t have a proper state meet. Others test themselves at Easterns around other major invitationals, like the National Catholic Championships. It means that exact makeup of the field varies from year-to-year, cost of travel and feasibility obviously taken into consideration.<\/p>\n<p>In sending out the information, Wriede included any team that has been at the event in the last decade. The hope is that a few schools on the fringe decide to buy-in. The low barrier to entry could bring new schools into the fold, with Wriede holding an open-door policy on any independent, tuition-based programs that compete in the winter season.<\/p>\n<p>Times have started to roll in this week and will likely continue as the Inter-Ac League starts up this week.<\/p>\n<p>Given all that has been taken away by the pandemic, the committee\u2019s aim was to make Easterns still mean something, as a reward for all the student-athletes&#8217; tribulations and hard work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really just a chance to see where kids stand relative to their peers in the private-school universe,\u201d Neufeld said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For members of the Easterns steering committee, two things became abundantly clear early this winter season. The first was that collecting dozens of independent private schools from throughout the Eastern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8367,"featured_media":186482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[127234,127233,66398,24,3317,4949,127232,39572,3568,1080],"class_list":["post-461325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school","category-usa","tag-2021-eastern-interscholastic-swimming-and-diving-championships","tag-eastern-interscholastic-swimming-and-diving-championships","tag-easterns","tag-germantown-academy","tag-glenn-neufeld","tag-greg-wriede","tag-inter-academic-league","tag-jeff-thompson","tag-mercersburg-academy","tag-peddie-school"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Prestigious Easterns Champs Adopting a Virtual Leaderboard Approach<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For members of the Easterns steering committee, two things became abundantly clear early this winter season.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prestigious Easterns Champs Adopting a Virtual Leaderboard Approach\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For members of the Easterns steering committee, two things became abundantly clear early this winter season.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-04T14:37:38+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/officla-and-pool-at-2016-easterns.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2400\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sportsdoctormd\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3\"},\"headline\":\"Prestigious Easterns Champs Adopting a Virtual Leaderboard Approach\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-04T14:37:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-04T14:37:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/\"},\"wordCount\":945,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/officla-and-pool-at-2016-easterns.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2021 Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships\",\"Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships\",\"Easterns\",\"Germantown Academy\",\"Glenn Neufeld\",\"Greg Wriede\",\"Inter-Academic League\",\"Jeff Thompson\",\"Mercersburg Academy\",\"Peddie School\"],\"articleSection\":[\"High School\",\"USA\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/\",\"name\":\"Prestigious Easterns Champs Adopting a Virtual Leaderboard Approach\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/officla-and-pool-at-2016-easterns.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-04T14:37:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-04T14:37:38+00:00\",\"description\":\"For members of the Easterns steering committee, two things became abundantly clear early this winter season.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/officla-and-pool-at-2016-easterns.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/officla-and-pool-at-2016-easterns.jpg\",\"width\":2400,\"height\":1600,\"caption\":\"Photo Courtesy: Taylor Brien\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Prestigious Easterns Champs Adopting a Virtual Leaderboard Approach\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"description\":\"The Global Leader in Aquatic News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"width\":1799,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Swimming World\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3\",\"name\":\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\"},\"description\":\"Matthew De George is the Americas Correspondent for Swimming World Magazine. He's the author of two books on swimming, Duels in the Pool and Pooling Talent. He's also the assistant sports editor for the Delaware County Daily Times in Pennsylvania, where he covers high school and college sports as well as the Philadelphia Union. His work has also appeared in The Guardian and The Athletic.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.swimmingworld.com\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/sportsdoctormd\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/mattdg\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Prestigious Easterns Champs Adopting a Virtual Leaderboard Approach","description":"For members of the Easterns steering committee, two things became abundantly clear early this winter season.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Prestigious Easterns Champs Adopting a Virtual Leaderboard Approach","og_description":"For members of the Easterns steering committee, two things became abundantly clear early this winter season.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/","og_site_name":"Swimming World","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","article_published_time":"2021-02-04T14:37:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2400,"height":1600,"url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/officla-and-pool-at-2016-easterns.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sportsdoctormd","twitter_site":"@swimmingworld","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/"},"author":{"name":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3"},"headline":"Prestigious Easterns Champs Adopting a Virtual Leaderboard Approach","datePublished":"2021-02-04T14:37:38+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-04T14:37:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/"},"wordCount":945,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/officla-and-pool-at-2016-easterns.jpg","keywords":["2021 Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships","Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships","Easterns","Germantown Academy","Glenn Neufeld","Greg Wriede","Inter-Academic League","Jeff Thompson","Mercersburg Academy","Peddie School"],"articleSection":["High School","USA"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/","name":"Prestigious Easterns Champs Adopting a Virtual Leaderboard Approach","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/officla-and-pool-at-2016-easterns.jpg","datePublished":"2021-02-04T14:37:38+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-04T14:37:38+00:00","description":"For members of the Easterns steering committee, two things became abundantly clear early this winter season.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/officla-and-pool-at-2016-easterns.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/officla-and-pool-at-2016-easterns.jpg","width":2400,"height":1600,"caption":"Photo Courtesy: Taylor Brien"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/prestigious-easterns-champs-adopting-a-virtual-leaderboard-approach\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Prestigious Easterns Champs Adopting a Virtual Leaderboard Approach"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","name":"Swimming World","description":"The Global Leader in Aquatic News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Swimming World","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","width":1799,"height":900,"caption":"Swimming World"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld","https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3","name":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","caption":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer"},"description":"Matthew De George is the Americas Correspondent for Swimming World Magazine. He's the author of two books on swimming, Duels in the Pool and Pooling Talent. He's also the assistant sports editor for the Delaware County Daily Times in Pennsylvania, where he covers high school and college sports as well as the Philadelphia Union. His work has also appeared in The Guardian and The Athletic.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.swimmingworld.com","https:\/\/x.com\/sportsdoctormd"],"url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/mattdg\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Photo Courtesy: Taylor Brien ","source_text":"","source_url":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/officla-and-pool-at-2016-easterns.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p56Jja-1W0J","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}