With so many new families coming to the team, it was recommended that I take a moment to explain swim meets.

The competitiveness of our team relies on the participation of all swimmers.

 

Invitational Swim Meets:

Invititationals are meets where many teams come together and enter their swimmers against all of the other teams.  It is not uncommon to have 100 swimmers entered in the same event.  These meets tend to last several hours and involve swimmers of all levels.  Certain invitational meets have different themes (ie Sprints, relays, etc…) and provide a good opportunity to see how our team stands against others in our League.

Swimmers may normally swim between 3 and 4 events depending on relay entries. 

Each invitational is scored differently with certain awards given to top finishers.  It is typical for the top 16 overall finishers in each event to earn points and earn awards (medals, ribbons).

 

Dual Meets:

Dual meets are the highlight of summer league swimming.  Two teams come together to race each event with the scores are tallied at the end to determine a winner.  In dual meets, there are exhibition and live heats of swimmers.  (A heat is one race).  Typically, the fastest 3 or 4 swimmers in each event will swim against the opposite team in a live heat for points.  Other swimmers will have the opportunity to swim in exhibition heats. While exhibition races do not count for points, they are certainly just as important as they give swimmers an opportunity to get valuable racing experience against the other team’s exhibition swimmers as well as his of her own teammates.  Swimmers take this opportunity to improve their skills and quicken their time before entering a live heat.

Swimmers may swim up to 3 Live events in dual meets.  In rare cases, I may have a swimmer compete in a 4th event, but it would only be in exhibition.

In dual meets, I really try my best to try and have each swimmer race in 3 events.  I consider racing experience extremely valuable to a swimmer's devlopment.  Our team, however, is growing, and depending on how many heats we have, and how many swimmer in an age group, some swimmers will only race two.

Points are given to the first (5pts), second (3pts), and third (1pt) place finishers in each live event.  If a team earns all three of the top places, the third place point (1pt) is given to the opposite team.

 

Championships:

We will be attending two Championship meets this summer:  the Divisional Championships, and the All-Leagues Championships. 

Every swimmer will be entered to swim in the Divisional Championships.  Every team in our division (those who we swim against in Dual meets) will be present, and it will be run in the same style as an Invitational meet.

The All-Leagues Championship meet is an elite championship meet including every Lancaster County team from all 4 divisions.  This meet is held in mutiple sessions over a 2 day span. 

Meet Fees:

There is no charge for Dual Meet entries.  Invitational and Championship meets, however, require a fee from every swimmer for each event they will compete in.  Each event typically costs $1.50-$2.00 per event, though this is subject to change.  Individual bills will be placed in swimmers mailboxes, then the amount in total is forwarded to the host swim team

 

Personal Best Ribbons:

Throughout the season, swimmers have the opportunity to earn Personal Best ribbons every time they achieve a best time.  Swimmers may earn a personal best ribbon by swimming a best time in any official race where they have not been Disqualified.