New to High school swimming and diving? Never been to a swim meet before? Here are the
basics.
Types of Meets
TIME TRIAL OR ALUMNI MEETS
These are not formal meets. Time Trials provide a chance for the coaches to get times for
the athletes to help them plan for the season start. Alumni Meets are a fun meet to invite
former teammates to come back and race or dive with the team.
CONFERENCE RELAYS
This is an all relay meet against other teams in our conference. A variety of relay events
are swam that are not part of a typical dual meet.
DUAL MEETS
This is a head to head meet against another team in our conference.
TRUE TEAM
This meet is designed and scored to test a team’s depth. Teams can enter four
individuals and four relays in each event. ALL competitors score points
in EVERY event. The teams competing are the same teams that are in our section. Not
all teams choose to participate in this meet. Due to the limited number of entries, it is
possible that not athletes will compete at this meet. The top team qualifies for the True
Team State Meet which is held the following weekend
INVITATIONAL
These are meets against other teams not typically in our conference or section. Multiple
teams are invited to a meet with the same standard order of events as a dual meet.
Scoring varies based on the type of invitational, how many team entries are accepted,
and how many places score.
CHAMPIONSHIP MEETS
Each athlete will compete in at least one end of season meet.
JV CONFERENCE
The JV Conference Meet is a final meet for athletes to strive for their season
best races.
MSHSL SECTION MEET
Each team selects the top four individual entries per event and one relay team
for each relay to compete at the Minnesota State High School League Section
Meets. The athletes will compete against teams in their assigned section. At
this meet, athletes swim their strongest events in a preliminary session on Day 1.
The top 16 swimmers and relay teams in each event advance to finals on Day
2. Qualifiers nine through sixteen swim in a consolation heat. Qualifiers one
through eight compete in the championship heat. Medals are awarded to the top
eight swimmers from the championship heat. A podium-ceremony is done
following each event. A swimmer or relay may only qualify for the state
competition during the consolation and championship finals on Day 2. The top
two individual and relay finishers, along with any other competitors who swim a
qualifying state time in each event at section finals, qualify for the State meet.
MSHSL STATE MEET The Minnesota State High School League State Meet
is held at the University of MN Aquatic Center. The meet is a prelims/finals
format over three days (Day 1 – Diving Prelims, Day 2 - Swimming Prelims,
Day 3 - Swimming and Diving Finals). It is a great achievement to qualify for
this meet which celebrates the state’s top swimmers.
o DIVING AT TRUE TEAM, SECTIONS AND STATE MEETS
The format for these meets is different than the dual meets; yet, they are scored
the same way. The top four divers from each team will compete at Sections. The
top found divers at the Section meet will compete at State. In these meets,
divers perform eleven dives rather than the six performed in dual meets. Of the
eleven dives performed, five are voluntary dives and six
are optional. Competitors must have a larger repertoire of dives they can
perform, so only the more advanced divers attend these meets. The preliminary
round goes through the first five dives, and the field is cut to twenty divers. The
semi-final round then goes through eight dives, and the field is then cut to
sixteen divers. The final round then goes through eleven dives, and the event is
scored. The top four divers at the section meet advance to the state meet. There
is no qualifying standard like swimming – only the top four places advance.
Meet Progression
During a swim and dive meet, the competition follows a standard order of events. This order is
the same at all meets. For dual meets, each team enters three swimmers in each individual
event and three relay teams in each relay event (in an 8-lane pool a fourth competitor for each
team may be entered as exhibition). Swimmers may enter a maximum of four events, no more
than two of which can be individual events. Swimmers are selected by the coach for each event
or relay based on their times and the coach’s goals for that meet. By rule, the visiting team
selects their choice of odd or even lanes. Depending on the number of athletes swimming in
each individual event, there may be multiple heats swam in the following progression:
Exhibition, JV, Varsity.
At invitational swim meets and championship swim meets there will often be multiple heats of
swimmers grouped together by time. Heats progress in order from slowest times to fastest
times. At these meets diving usually takes place at another time and/or location.
In diving, all divers compete at the same time – varsity divers compete in 6 dives each, while
JV divers complete a number of dives determined by their diving coach. The diving format for
dual meets can get a bit confusing. Divers are required to perform one voluntary dive and five
optional dives for a total of six dives for each meet. Voluntary dives are the simpler ones, such
as a front dive, a back dive, a reverse dive, or an inward dive. Optional dives can be any dive
except the one performed for the voluntary dive. If you thought that part was confusing, just
wait... Each week, the voluntary dive that must be performed changes. The first meet, a front
must be done as the voluntary; the second meet, a back; the third meet, a reverse; the fourth
meet, an inward; the fifth meet, a twister; and that cycle continues until the dual meet season is
over. The divers must perform five optionals from only four groups, without repeating the dive
they did for their voluntary.
Meet Order of Events
As stated above, every meet follows a standard order of events. Each event consists of either one
competitive stroke or all four competitive strokes: freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke.
In addition, every race is a specific distance of 50 yards, 100 yards, 200 yards or 500 yards. Each
length of the pool is 25 yards – therefore, a 50-yards race is 2 lengths, a 100-yard race is 4
lengths, a 200-yard race is 8 lengths, and a 500-yard race is 20 lengths.
1. 200-yard Medley Relay
4 Swimmers, 50-yards each in the following order – Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly,
Freestyle
2. 200-yard Freestyle
3. 200-yard Individual Medley (IM)
50-yards of each stroke in the following order – Butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke,
freestyle
4. 50-yard Freestyle
5. Diving
6. 100-yard Butterfly
7. 100-yard Freestyle
8. 500-yard Freestyle
9. 200-yard Freestyle
4 swimmers, 50-yards each – All Freestyle
10. 100-yard Backstroke
11. 100-yard Breaststroke
12. 400-yard Freestyle Relay
4 swimmers, 100-yards each – All Freestyle
Scoring
At a dual meet, there are 170 points available. There are 14 points available for each of the three
relays (totaling 42 points), and each of the eight individual events has 16 points available
(totaling 128 points).
• RELAYS – The top 3 places are scored; only two relay teams being allowed to score for
each team. There are 14 points available fore each fo the relays (totaling 42 points).
• INDIVIDUAL EVENTS – The top 5 places are scored; only three individuals being
allowed to score for each team. There are 16 points available for each individual swim
event (totaling 128 points). Note: If there are empty lanes for relays or individual events,
these points are forfeited from the meet.
• DIVING – The diving competition is scored as an individual event and the top 5 places
are score the same as an individual event. The judging is comprised of three judges, one
from each team’s coaching staff, and one official. Each dive, no matter what it is, is
assigned a degree of difficulty based on how difficult the dive is to perform. Each dive’s
total score is added up to get a final score, which then determines the final ranking of the
divers.
All varsity dual meets are scored the same using the following point system:
RELAYS INDIVIDUAL EVENTS
1st Place 8 Points 1st Place 6 Points
2nd Place 4 Points 2nd Place 4 Points
3rd Place 2 Points 3rd Place 3 Points
4th - 8th Place 0 Points 4th Place 2 Points
5th Place 1 Points
Once a team has secured a victory (94 points), in the spirt of sportsmanship, coaches may forfeit
their remaining points. Remaining varsity swimmers for the victorious team will be counted as
exhibition swims and will not earn points towards their team’s total.
It is important to note, unlike club meets, times swam at high school meets do not qualify a
swimmer for the MSHSL state meet. State qualifying times must be achieved at SECTION
FINALS (not prelims). There are no ribbons or other awards at dual meets, just an opportunity
for swimmers to better their times, help the team score points, and maybe even set a new record -
personal, pool, and/or team!
