The 41st state swimming championships will be held Friday and Saturday with some 400 competitors from 38 schools.

Favorites include Maui Interscholastic League champion Baldwin, Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion Iolani and Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion Hawaii Preparatory Academy. The three swept the boys' and girls' titles in their respective league championships.

Punahou, which won the boys' and girls' meets last year on Maui, seeks its 38th boys' title and 39th girls' crown.

Baldwin's boys, led by Cheyne Bloch, who broke MIL records in the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard freestyle, are given an edge. Iolani and Punahou are expected to battle for the girls' title.

Looming over the event is a shadow of doubt concerning the adequacy of the site -- the new Pahoa pool on the Big Island.

The meet was originally slated for the more familiar Sparky Kawamoto Swim Stadium in Hilo. But ongoing work to install a heating system caused the event to be relocated 20 miles away in drought-stricken Pahoa.

A 2,500-acre brush fire threatened thousands of homes in that community just last week.

Meanwhile, the University of Hawaii's Duke Kahanamoku Pool, which last hosted the state meet in 1996, is available, according to the pool complex's manager, Bruce Kennard.

Despite the availability of the larger UH facility, Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive director Henry Kibota said that it's the Big Island's turn to host the meet and it will stay there.

"Mr. Roy Fujimoto (BIIF executive secretary) says it's a nice pool, so it's a go," Kibota said.

But several coaches wonder why an untested facility as small as Pahoa is being used for a state meet when the UH pool is available. They say deck space at Pahoa is limited and seating is severely limited and poorly positioned.

While the Pahoa pool has three rows of seats on one side of the pool, the UH pool has seating on its mauka and makai sides, and is able to accommodate about 1,500 spectators.

Spectators, who will pay $6 apiece to watch the meet, will be about 35 to 40 feet away from the edge of the pool, according to Hawaii Preparatory Academy coach Mark Noetzel. He pointed out that Lane 1 will be an additional 75 feet away, and swimmers in the near lanes will be hard to see because spectators will be seated at such a low angle.

Noetzel said he wonders how much money the HHSAA and BIIF can make off swim fans accustomed to seeing league meets for free.

"If you're going to charge money, charge money and put them in a good seat," said Noetzel, a former Punahou coach and graduate assistant at Michigan who helped organize Big 10 meets.

Noetzel said he doesn't like the fact that coaches will have to coach from the noncompetition end of the pool so not to impede the view of spectators.

He said there also is a question about cover for swimmers awaiting their turn to compete in Pahoa.

Noetzel said he was told by a Pahoa pool lifeguard last weekend that tarps will not be allowed inside the pool area at the state meet.

If tarps must be set up outside the pool area, swimmers won't be able to view teammates competing.

"Having your teammates on deck cheering helps get the rest of the team going," said Maui High coach Reid Yamamoto, a 1985 100-yard backstroke champion for Hawaii Baptist Academy.

"Going in not knowing about things like this is an added distraction -- something a coach should not have to worry about."

Diving preliminaries begin at 9 a.m. Friday, with swimming trials at 1:30 p.m. On Saturday, diving semifinals and finals will be held at 8:30 a.m. and swimming finals at 1 p.m.