About Swim Meets

While not required, swim meets are fun and even the most reticent first timer often decides the meets are the best part of the Spring season. Coach Marie strongly encourages all swimmers to try the meets and 98% of the team swims in at least three meets per season.

Types of Meets

There are a total of 10-11 meets per season, as follows:

  • Time Trials is generally the last Saturday of April. The purpose of this meet, which is against only our own team, is to record times for the kids in each event they can swim legally, and for our volunteers to test out all the equipment for the season, learn their new jobs, and understand the flow of the meet before ‘diving’ into a dual meet. It's a bit of a 'dress rehearsal' for the real thing!

  • Dual Meets. There are 7-8 dual meets held on Saturdays in May and June, where the Tidalwaves compete against another team in the league. Generally half of these meets will be ‘home’ meets and will be held at Redwood. The other half of these meets will be ‘away’ meets and will be held at other league pools around Marin.

  • All-Stars. This meet, typically held on a Sunday in June, is for any kid in the league who has recorded a swim under the All Star qualifying times set by the league each year. The All Star qualifying times provide a goal for all kids to work toward during the season. It is a great honor and accomplishment for any swimmer to qualify for this meet! For more information, see About the All-Stars Meet.

  • Champs. There is one Championship meet held the final weekend of the season and it's the Marin Swim League equivalent of the World Championships or the Olympics as ALL TEN teams come together to participate in one big swim meet. This is where the true depth of a team’s commitment and spirit is tested. Points are awarded for the first 16 finishes in each individual event and for all 10 places in the relays.  This is where a team can showcase its spirit through participation. Trophies are awarded to the teams that finish in the top 3 spots. For more information, see About the MSL Championship Meet.

Age Groups

At a swim meet, all swimmers are divided into age groups as follows:

  • 8 & Under

  • 9-10

  • 11-12

  • 13-14

  • 15-18

Swimmers are assigned to an age group based on their birthdate. This is a Marin Swim League rule. If, during the swim team season a swimmer has a birthday that will move them up to the next age group, they must move up to that age group at the next swim meet. The only exception to this rule is if the child’s birthday falls the week before the All Stars meet (assuming the child qualified for All Stars at the younger age group) or the week before Champs. 

 

Events

The events (and their order) are standard at every swim meet and proceed in the following order:

Stroke Event Description
Mixed Medley Relays 1 - 5 Four swimmers from the same age group form a team of two girls and two boys.  Each swimmer swims one of the four strokes in this order:  Back, Breast, Fly, and Free.
Freestyle  6 - 15   
Backstroke 16 - 25   
Breaststroke 26 - 35   
Butterfly 36 - 45   
Individual Medley (IM) 46 - 55  All swimmers swim 25 yards of each stroke in this order:  Butterfly, Back, Breast, and Free.
Mixed Freestyle Relays 56 - 60 Four swimmers from the same age group form a team of two girls and two boys.  Each swimmer swims freestyle.

 

Girls 8 & Under swim first; then the Boys 8 & Under, followed by the other age groups in ascending order. Meets have a 15 - 20 minute break between backstroke and breaststoke events.

 

Individual Race Distances

 

8 & Under 25 yards (1 lap)
9 and over 50 yards (2 laps)
15 - 18

100 yards (freestyle)

50 yards (other events)
All IMs 100 yards (4 laps, 25 yards of each stroke)

 

Relay Distances

 

8 & Under 100 yards (4 x 25 yards)
9 and over 200 yards (4 x 50 yards)                           

 

Number of Events

 

New 8 & Unders only swim freestyle and backstroke at meets.

 

All other swimmers may generally participate in up to 3 individual events (provided they have mastered the stroke) plus up to two relay events. The coaches pick the swimmers for the relays. 

 

At Time Trials, swimmers may swim in as many events as they can legally swim.

 

Committing To or Declining a Meet

 

By 9AM Wednesday prior to each swim meet, please let us know if your swimmer(s) will attend the swim meet or not and if so, in which events they wish to enter. If you do not explicity commit or decline, we will presume that your swimmer IS coming and will be available for the full duration of the meet. The coaches will choose his or her strokes. 

 

If your swimmer(s) WILL attend the swim meet and you want to make stroke requests and/or leave a note for the coaches:

 

  1. Sign in the Tidalwaves website with your email address and password.
  2. In the Events tab, open the official Touch Pad event listing for the meet. There are usually two listings for each meet -- the correct one will have a TouchPad logo under the event title and date.
  3. Click Edit Commitment in the upper right corner of the event listing.
  4. For each swimmer in your family:
    1. At the bottom of the page, click the name of your swimmer in the Member Name column.
    2. Click Declaration in the top section and select “Yes.”
    3. Select up to three strokes that your swimmer would prefer to swim. If your child is legally able to swim the strokes, the coaches will put them in those events.
    4. Optionally leave a note for the coaches indicating whether you will need to leave early, and/or whether your swimmer would like to swim 'exhibition for any strokes (that is, to swim for a best time, but not be eligible for points). 
    5. Click Save Changes. 

If your swimmer(s) WILL NOT attend the swim meet:

  1. Sign in the Tidalwaves website with your email address and password.
  2. In the Events tab, open the official Touch Pad event listing for the meet. There are usually two listings for each meet -- the correct one will have a TouchPad logo under the event title and date.
  3. Click Edit Commitment in the upper right corner of the event listing.
  4. For each swimmer in your family:
    1. At the bottom of the page, click the name of your swimmer in the Member Name column.
    2. Click Declaration in the top section and select “No.”
    3. Click Save Changes. 

 

Heat Sheets

Every event has an unlimited number of heats, or races for swimmers of that event. For example, there may be as many as 25 heats of Girls 8 & Under Freestyle or 10 heats of Boys 9-10 Backstroke. Swimmers are assigned to heats based on their fastest time for the season. The fastest swimmers swim in the first heat. 

 

Heat sheets are a schedule of who is swimming what event, in which heat and lane. Heat Sheets are posted on our website a few days before a swim meet. The heat sheets are also posted on a board at the meet.

 

Before the meet, use a permanent marker to write your child's events, heats, and lanes on his or her hand. This helps swimmers get to the right place at the right time. See the image to the right for an example.

If you forget, there are volunteer age group coordinators who will write this information on your swimmers hand before the meet. Age group coordinators are also present at each lane to help the swimmers line up for their races.

 

Meet Start Time and Duration

 

Warmups for home meets usually start at 10 AM, with each age group taking ~5 minutes to swim a few laps before races start. Warmups start with the 8 & Unders, followed by each age group in order. Home meet races start at 10:30 AM.  

 

The warmup and start time for away meets varies by pool. Please look out for emails or review the Event calendar for information.

 

The duration of a swim meet depends primarily on the size of the teams participating, the number of lanes used at the pool where the meet is being held, and the efficiency of the starters. Typically, meets will last anywhere from 4 - 5 hours. However, for younger swimmers, many will complete their swimming within the first half of the meet, within 1 - 2 hours. 

 

Scoring

 

To determine who wins a meet, points are awarded as follows for events:

 

  • 5 points for first place overall (7 points for a relay)
  • 3 points for second place overall
  • 1 point for third place overall

 

These points are added up. The team with the most points wins the meet.

 

Team sweeps of a specific event are not allowed.  For example if the third place swimmer is on the same team as the first and second place swimmers, the third place point will go to the fastest swimmer on the opposing team.

 

At the end of your race, you may ask the timers for your time. Sometimes the time they give you will not be your final time. The final time is actually determined by computer algorithm based on the times clocked by three timers, plus a fourth manual stopwatch time that's available in case of computer malfunction. The final official time will be posted by the end of the meet.

 

You should only worry about improving your times over the season. What place you come in does not matter!

 

Disqualifications (DQs)

 

No swimmer likes getting a DQ, but they happen.  A swimmer receives a DQ when the Stroke and Turn Judge sees an illegal move. For example, if a swimmer does not touch the pool edge with two hands during a turn in the butterfly or breaststroke, the swimmer may get a DQ and will not receive a recorded time, ribbon, or points for the race.

 

The league applies DQs to all swimmers 9 and older. Non-scoring 8 and under swimmers, however, will only get a "coach's DQ" if they have an infraction. This means the infraction is written up and given to the coach, but the swimmer still receives a recorded time and ribbon. The reason for this is that these little ones are still learning. To earn points for the team, however, the swimmer must swim the stroke correctly, regardless of age. 

 

Meet Results

 

Meet results are posted at meets once all ages within an event have raced. Results can also be found on our website within a few days of the meet. See Meet Results.