By Ross Weener

Sports Editor

With nationals finished and the women swimmers returning to their regular routines of life, no one would have guessed that the MIAA title picture would once again come into focus. It has been over for nearly two months--or has it? In a recent and bizarre turn of events the MIAA women's swimming title is now up in the air. Why you may ask? Well this past week Hope College self-reported themselves to the NCAA with a possible violation of using an ineligible swimmer during the second semester.

The swimmer, whose name Chimes has chosen to keeps anonymous, transferred to Hope from Denison University at the semester break and was very influential over the course of the season, eventually earning All-MIAA first team honors. The NCAA, which has yet to rule on the subject, will determine whether or not the swimmer is eligible or ineligible and also how to score the MIAA league meet.

The rumor of the ineligibility was brought to the attention of Calvin women's athletic director Nancy Meyer, who following the correct protocol, reported it to Hope's women's AD Anne Irwin.

``I actually heard it from a parent of a swimmer who goes to Denison,'' said Meyer. ``That parent is a faculty member here at Calvin.''

If the NCAA declares the swimmer ineligible then Hope may have to go back and look at all the meets that she competed in and then take away those points or even forfeit the meets themselves.

``They might sanction Hope, I don't know,'' says Meyer. ``They might sanction the athlete, but I strongly feel it is not her fault.''

Calvin's SID (Sports Information Director) Jeff Febus thinks that Calvin will end up winning the MIAA women's swimming championship after the NCAA gives their ruling. ``My guess is that they will either take away the point she factored in , and have the league re-scored from that point, or they may forfeit Hope completely from the league meet altogether. In the past the NCAA has ruled that if you use an ineligible athlete, you forfeit the contest altogether. We won't know for sure until the NCAA rules on this in the next few weeks.''

In the MIAA championships Hope took first place with a team score of 588 while Calvin was next with a score of 502. The swimmer in question was a prevalent piece of many of Hope's relays, and if the meet is re-scored Calvin would come out on top, and Hope would slip to second or third. This would give the Calvin women their second ever MIAA women's swimming championship as they also won it in 2001.

This also factors into the Commissioner's Cup standings. The Commissioner's Cup is a measure of how each school does over the course of a year in relation to how it finished in each sport. So the school who had the most dominant sports team scores the most points and wins the Cup. As it sits now Hope leads Calvin 117-103 after the winter sports season--but that could all change once SWIMGATE is resolved.