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GREENSBORO - Qualifying times from non-sanctioned events will keep 24 Northwest High swimmers from competing in some races at a regional meet Saturday, Guilford County Schools said. Their coach resigned Thursday.

Northwest High School submitted inappropriate qualifying times for 24 students and five of its six relay teams, school officials announced Friday. The students were scheduled to compete today in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4A-Central Regional swim meet in Hillsborough.

A preliminary investigation found that some qualifying times submitted by Northwest swimming coach Matt Thorne were not earned at NCHSAA-sanctioned events this season, officials said.

"NCHSAA rules state that swimmers may only submit times earned during sanctioned high school competitions," the school system said in a news release.

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations' rules, which are followed by the NCHSAA, if a meet entry card is "incomplete, inaccurate or delivered late, the competitor or relay team shall be disqualified from that event."

When the school district checked qualifying times for its 15 high schools, errors were found in the times for two relay teams from Page High School and they also were disqualified.

Thorne, who was a coach but not a faculty member, resigned Thursday. An assistant coach will serve in his position for the rest of the season, school officials said.

No telephone listing was available for Thorne, and he could not be reached for comment Friday night.

Nora Carr, chief of staff for Guilford County Schools, said the errors were discovered after the school system received a tip from someone at Northwest. She declined to say whether the tip came from a student, teacher or staff member.

"We don't know definitively where the incorrect times came from," Carr said. "We are certainly disappointed when adults' errors create issues for the kids."

Carr said she believed that some members of Northwest's disqualified relay teams still would compete in individual events at the regional.

Northwest officials met with parents Thursday and informed them of the disqualifications by the NCHSAA, the school system said.

Northwest High Athletic Director John Hughes said accuracy and adhering to state-sanctioned time lines are important since errors may prevent other qualified swimmers from competing.

"We feel terrible about this - and we apologize to any swimmers from any other teams in our county or region who aren't competing this weekend as a result," Hughes said in a news release. "We are going to do everything we can to make sure none of our students, parents or staff members ever go through this again. This is a tough situation for everyone involved."

After discovering the errors with Northwest's swim times, Guilford County Schools Athletic Director Leigh Hebbard instructed all 15 high school athletic directors to check their swim teams' submissions for regional competitions. That led to the discovery that two of Page High School's relay times were incorrect and resulted in the disqualification of two relay teams.

Page High Athletic Director Rusty Lee said the two teams - both boys and girls 200-freestyle - swam times to qualify for their event, but they were recorded incorrectly.

"(In one of the cases) we had a 135.55 turned in to the conference to swim - which we swam at the conference meet - but turned in a 135.45," Lee said. "They were clerical errors, our kids earned the time. If the Northwest thing wouldn't have come out, we wouldn't have known about it."

The eight Page swimmers still will swim in their individual events, for which the qualifying times were submitted correctly, he said.

"We just hate it for the swimmers, but fortunately, we didn't lose any kids from swimming," Lee said. "We will have a second set of eyes from now on for clarification."

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com