Oyster River Otters Swim Team

A competitive youth swim and diving team for the seacoast area of New Hampshire and southern Maine. 

New England Swimming
Level 2
Click here for more information

Otter Home Meets

The Otters Swim team hosts several meets throughout the season.

The Fall/Winter season meets will all be held at the Indoor Pool at UNH.

Anticipated Meet Schedule for 2025 Spring/Summer Season

  • June 2025 Home Meet @ UNH 
  • July 2025 Home Meet @ UNH
  • August 2-3 2025 Moose Invitational Meet @ JTP Dover 

Anticipated Schedule for 2025/2026 Season:

  • Oct. 26, 2025 (Halloween Mini Meet)
  • Nov. 16, 2025 (Graham Cracker Meet)
  • Dec 7, 2025 (Snowball/Christmas Meet)
  • Jan 11, 2026 (New Years Meet)
  • Feb 7, 2026 (Superbowl Splash Meet)
  • March 20 - 22, 2026 (TSSA Championship)

 

Pool Locations

Click Links to our Pool locations

 

Swim Meets: The Ins and Outs

 What do I need to bring?

  • Meet bathing suit (black or Otter branded)
  • Otter cap
  • Goggles (reflective can be helpful if outside) + a backup pair can also be super helpful
  • Water bottle – no fruit juices or soda
  • Snacks (Good examples are goldfish, granola bars, fruit.  Bad examples are things like donuts, fried foods, highly salted foods)
  • Extra towels.  You are in an out of the pool and 1 towel usually isn’t enough.
  • Something to wear over the suit if it’s chilly.  Some swimmers have a parka jacket, some have a t-shirt or hoodie.
  • Easy shoes – like Crocs or flip flops. The deck will get slippery, easy shoes to pop on and off if you don’t want to be barefoot are recommended.
  • Something to do.  Lots of swimmers bring card games to play (Examples – Uno, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza.)  Electronics are fine – but we would ask that they try to limit it so they can still focus and be aware of what’s going on.  Fidget toys are also a good option.

Where do I sit?

  • We sit together as a team on the furthest right side of the bleachers – just above the handicap accessible area.
  • We ask that ALL swim team members sit together on that right side. 
  • Please make sure you have your bag/equipment/towels with you.

How do I know where to go and when?

  • Before you arrive at the pool you should have the “grid” already written on your hand, arm or leg.  What is the grid?
  • Having this information already on you will be vital for yourself, or a coach who may need to help you.
  • There will be deck parents (a volunteer parent) who will help line you up before your event and get you to the deck.
    • Veteran swimmers – please encourage younger swimmers to be paying attention and listening to when they should go down.
  • You will be led onto the pool deck by a coach who will then help you get lined up behind the blocks for your turn.
  • Make sure you have your cap and googles with you, so you don’t need to go back up the bleachers!

 

 

How to mark a swimmer's arm for a swim meet

So you’ve signed up for your kid's first swim experience, and now your child is about to have their first meet. How do you make sure they get where they needs to go? Nobody wants to be ‘that’ parent and have their child’s arm look like this: 

 

How is your child going to get to their race with THAT? The first step to getting your swimmer ready to compete is marking their Event, Heat, and Lane (or EHL for short). 

The first thing you’ll need to do is purchase a copy of the Heat Sheet (if not free on the "Meet Mobile" APP or provided by the host team), the seeding sheet that tells you when and where your swimmer is to compete. The heat sheet is comprised of little groupings of “heats” that each may look something like this: 

Events, listed numerically, are usually categorized by gender and age. Note, that they do not always start at 1. Check out “A”  above to see where you would find the Event Number.

Heat information can be found listed below the event line, and tell you the groupings of entrants. These groupings are usually based on seed times. There are often multiple heats of an event and specific heats will be listed as “Heat x of x”. Pay special attention to your child’s assigned heat, located at “B”. 

Lane assignments can be found listed vertically (“C”) and indicate the respective lanes in which the swimmers will compete. Lane assignments will sometimes start with a 0 and sometimes with a 1, depending on the pool. 

Once you’ve identified all of your swimmers’ races, it’s time to mark their event (E), heat (H), and lane (L) in an easy to read format. Most parents chose to organize this information on their child’s arm, via a water-proof, permanent marker, making it easy for their child to frequently check when they are to be swimming. This grid will look something like the one below: 

 

This Swim Grid shows what a completely filled out EHL should look like. In our version of the Swim Grid, we added a fourth column to add a description of the stroke, and/or position on a relay if you so choose. 

With your child’s EHL filled out, they should be more than ready to be where they need to be, when they need to be there. EHL is part of the swim meet experience, and removes some of the fear and anxiety kids have when starting out in the sport. It provides a safety net, that they can fall back on when they lose track of where they are. It also provides assistance to bullpen monitors and volunteers, charged with helping the kids get to their events in an orderly and timely fashion. No one wants to be the person who has to tell a 6 year old they missed their only opportunity to swim for the entire session.

Part of the experience of swimming, comes through having fun and competing. Missing events is never fun, and marking your swimmers’ EHL, helps provide you and your athlete the assurance that your athlete will be where they need to be to gain competitive experience. 

 

 

 A Swimmer’s Responsibilities at Meets

 

 Warmups

  • Warm-ups are a 20-25 minute period of time when the entire team can get in the pool and…well warm up!  It is not ideal to race without a proper warm up.  It is so important that you as a swimmer do NOT miss warm up.
  • When should I arrive for warm ups?
    • At a minimum – 15 minutes BEFORE warmups begin.  You need time to get into the pool area and get yourself ready to swim.
    • When you arrive at the pool – you need to check in with a coach!  This is so important.  We will tell you which coach will be doing check in before each meet.  You need to find that coach (who will be easy to spot on the pool deck) and go down to tell them you have arrived.
    • The warm-up time is not the time to be arriving at the pool.  By the time warm-ups begin, you should already be behind the blocks, with your caps and goggles on, ready to enter the pool.
  • There may be a lot of people in your lane for warm-ups.  More so than you are used to.  It is important that you are respectful of your teammates, and you listen well to your coaches.  Warm-up time can be a challenge but it’s so important for your competition day.

 

Throughout the Meet

  • If you need to scratch the meet - please notify a coach as soon as possible.
  • Swimmers should come to the pool knowing what they are swimming.  If possible - they also need to have the grid information on their hand, arm, or leg.
  • Swimmers – you are NOT to leave a swim meet without first checking in with a coach.  Some meets have relays.  Relays typically can happen at the beginning and at the end of the meet.  Even if you are not in a relay at the beginning of a meet, you may have been needed to replace another swimmer.
  • It’s so important to remember that whatever we bring into the pool/bleacher area, leaves with us.  We are guests at any pool/swim meet we attend.  We are not to leave trash, or other belongings behind.  We are to be responsible for our own things and be respectful of the place we are visiting.
  • Veteran swimmers –
    • We are asking that all veteran swimmers touch base with a coach BEFORE and AFTER your swim.  Before your swim - ask a coach what you should be focusing on for your swim.  After your swim – be receptive to feedback on what went well and what can go better next time.
    • It is so important that we have that instant feedback while the swim is still fresh in your mind and the coaches. 
  • ​Swimmers should either return to the bleachers after a race or can be on deck to cheer on their teammates.  At no point should swimmers be playing in the hallways or wandering about the building.
  • Swimmers are to get to the blocks in a timely manner and line up for their events.  Younger and less experienced swimmers will be assisted by coaches.

 

 

 Kinds of Swim Meets

 

During the regular season, Otter swimmers have the opportunity to participate in 2 types of meets

Dual or tri meets:

Lasts from 3-5 hours depending on the size of the teams involved.

o   Typically, we try to schedule 1 league meet per month and may travel to one or two away league meets per season 

o   Each swimmer is required to be in a minimum number of meets in order to participate in the Champ meet.  All swimmers are expected to compete in the Champ meet.  In the winter, 3 meets are required whereas only 2 meets are required in the summer.  Some USA swimming meets are recognized as meeting the requirements of the leagues.

o   More details on how home meets run can be found on the page “Otter Home Meets.”

 

USA Swimming Meets:

Last from 1-5 days depending on how it is set up.

o   Swimmers can participate in as many or as few days/events as they want.

o   Fees are charged for this meet outside of our seasonal dues.

o   Usually 10 or more teams (500 plus swimmers) attend these meets over the course of the competition days.

 More events are offered than at the league meets.

 

At the end of each season there are two kinds of championship meets available for Otter swimmers.

·         The league meet (TSSA) is usually a 2 day meet at the end of March.

o   All Otter swimmers are expected to attend this meet.

HOWEVER, swimmers are not there for every hour of those days.

o   Each Championship meet is divided into sessions by age and sometimes by gender in order to limit the time any one swimmer must be present. Usually a swimmer will be involved in more than 1 session, but each session has a limited amount of time.

o   All events and session are posted well before Champs begin and each swimmer knows exactly what they are swimming and when.

 

·         New England Championship Meets 

Are usually the weekends prior to the league Champ meet.  Swimmers must have achieved a qualifying time to participate in these meets. For more information and time standards go to www.neswim.com.

Below are the meets in progession of qualifying time order 

o   Bronze,formerly known as Regionals 

o   Silvers

o   AGE Group's: 10 & under AG, 11-14 AG, 15-18 AG

o  Seniors

 

Events at Meets

 

TSSA meets are held October to March; event limit 4 at Champs

Moose Invitation held the first weekend of August closes out the summer season.

Other events can be found at NE calendar meets which are held year round.

 

8 and under swimmers

  • TSSA league meet (YSC): 25 free, 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 25 back, 25 breast, 25 fly, 100 IM
  • Moose Invite (LCM): 50 free, 100 free, 50 back, 50 breast, 50 fly, 200 IM
  • Other events: 50 back,100 back,  50 breast, 100 breast, 50 fly, 100 fly, 200 IM

9 –10 swimmers

  • TSSA league meet (SCY): 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 500 free, 50 back, 50 breast, 50 fly, 100 IM
  • Moose Invite (LCM):  50 free, 100 free, 50 back, 50 breast, 50 fly, 200 IM
  • Other events:  100 back, 100 breast, 100 fly, 200 IM

 11-12 swimmers

  • TSSA league meet (SYC): 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 500 free, 50 back, 50 breast, 50 fly, 100 IM, 200 IM
  • Moose Invite (LCM): 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 50 back, 50 breast, 50 fly, 200 IM
  • Other events: 800 free, 1650 free, 100 back, 200 back, 100 breast, 200 breast, 100 fly, 200 fly, 400 IM

 

13 and up swimmers:

  • TSSA league meet: 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 500 free, 100 back, 100 breast, 100 fly, 100 IM, 200 IM
  • Moose Invite (LCM): 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 100 back, 100 breast, 100 fly, 200 IM
  • Other events: 800 free, 1650 free, 200 back, 200 breast, 200 fly, 400 IM