Learn More about the Summer Swim Meet Experience
The Willowdale Approach to Swim Meets
Swimmers are strongly encouraged to attend all swim meets
- If your swimmer is unavailable for a given swim meet, please let the coaches know via email ([email protected]) by the following deadlines:
- for Saturday “A” meets, by end-of-day Wednesday
- for Wednesday “B” meets, by end-of-day Monday
- It is extremely important that coaches are notified via email by the above deadlines. Failure to do so generally means that another swimmer will miss out on an opportunity to swim in their place.
The Willowdale coaches take considerable time and careful thought in determining which swimmers swim which events in a given meet.
- Factors may include your swimmer’s swimming ability, the swimmer’s demonstrated effort and attendance at practice, the number of other swimmers in the same age/gender category, and coaching strategy.
- In “B” meets, swimmers are often given an opportunity to swim events they do not usually swim in “A” meets. Additionally, if a swimmer has qualified for the Tri-County Championship Meet in a particular stroke, they cannot swim that stroke in a “B” meet.
- If you have questions or concerns about how your swimmer has been assigned to events in a meet, please raise them with the Swim Team Coordinators after the meet. Unless it is an urgent situation (e.g., alerting the Coordinators that a swimmer assigned to a relay team is not present), meets are too hectic to address these concerns right before or during the meet.
The “meet sheet” (which lists all events and the swimmers competing in them) is posted shortly before the meet.
Swimmers are expected to attend the full length of the swim meet. Swimmers from both teams shake hands at the end of the meet, and attendance at the full meet promotes a cohesive team environment, respect for other swimmers, and good sportsmanship.
| The Willowdale Swim Team is part of the Tri-County Swimming Association (TCSA). TCSA is an organization representing 33 summer swim clubs in three counties (Burlington, Camden, Gloucester). You can visit the website at www.tricoswim.org for more information. Tri-County swim clubs are divided into 6 divisions (“A” division through “F” division”), with “A” being the most highly ranked.
For the 2025 season, Willowdale is in "B" division. |
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Each Tri-County swim club participates in five “A” meets and two to three “B” meetings each summer season. All “A” and “B” meets are hosted either at our swim club or at another swim club in the Tri-County area.
- “A” meets:
- competitive meets against other swim clubs within the same division, the results of which determine which division the club will be in the following summer
- held on Saturday mornings, from 9 am until 11:30-12 pm (warm-ups begin earlier)
- include swimmers across all age groups
- “B” meets:
- not as competitive, against swim clubs in other divisions, and do not effect the club’s standing in the division
- great opportunity for new swimmers to get acclimated to the structure of a swim meet and practice their strokes in a lower-stress environment
- events tend to be shorter in length (e.g., for older swimmers, 25 meters rather than 50 meters)
- held on Wednesday evenings, from 6 pm until 8-8:30 pm (warm-ups begin earlier)
- limited to swimmers aged 12 and under
Here is an overview of the structure of a swim meet:
- Swimmers are categorized by age and gender
- Categories:
- 8 and under girls, 8 and under boys
- 9-10 girls, 9-10 boys
- 11-12 girls, 11-12 boys
- 13-14 girls, 13-14 boys
- 15-18 girls, 15-18 boys
- For summer swim purposes, a swimmer is determined to be the age they are on June 15th.
- Every other year, your child will have an "up" year when they are the oldest in their age group. And on the off years, they will have a "down" year when they are the youngest in their age group.
- Categories:
- Events:
- Each “A” meet has 66 events. “B” meets vary but generally have fewer events.
- Each event has a designated length and is for a designated age and gender (e.g., 25-meter backstroke for 9-10 boys).
- An event with a larger number of swimmers (generally, more than six) may be divided into multiple “heats,” where swimmers competing in a given event do not all swim against each other at the exact same time.
- “A” meets have only one heat.
- “B” meets often have multiple heats, as do the championship meets.
- Relays:
- The distance varies by age group, with relays for youngers swimmers being 100 meters (4 laps) in total and relays for older swimmers generally being 200 meters (8 laps) in total.
- Relays consist of four “legs” with a different child swimming each leg.
- freestyle relay = all swimmers swim freestyle
- medley relay = each swimmer swims a different stroke (back, breast, fly, or free)
- There are generally relay events near the beginning and end of each meet: the medley relay and the freestyle relay.
- Results
- For individual swimmers:
- In “A” meets, ribbons are awarded for the first four places in individual events and first place in the relay events.
- In “B” meets, ribbons are awarded to all places.
- For swim teams:
- Swimmers in “A” meets earn points for the team as follows:
- Individual events: 1st place = 5 points, 2nd place = 3 points, 3rd place = 1 point
- Relay events: 1st place = 7 points
- The team with the highest number of points wins the “A” meet.
- Swimmers in “A” meets earn points for the team as follows:
- Results of “A” meets (for both individual swimmers and teams) will be posted on the Tri-County website a few days after the meet occurs.
- For individual swimmers:
After the Regular Season ends around the 3rd weekend of July, there are two championship events that many Willowdale swimmers will participate in.
Cherry Bowl
Cherry Bowl is the championship meet held among the 12 Cherry Hill swim clubs. It is generally held on the 4th Saturday of July. The club responsible for hosting Cherry Bowl rotates each year and is a major production. Willowdale is excited to be hosting Cherry Bowl 2025!
- The format of the meet follows the format of Regular Season “A” meet, except that there are two heats for all of the events.
- Each swim team can enter one swimmer (or relay team, as applicable) in every event.
- Individual swimmers are allowed to swim in only one individual event and up to two relays.
Swimmer participation in Cherry Bowl is determined by the Willowdale coaching staff immediately after the Regular Season concludes. Swimmers will be notified if they are selected to compete and for which event(s).
Tri-County Championship Meet
“Tri-County” is used as a shorthand for this meet, which is held among the 33 swim clubs in the Tri-County Swimming Association. It is generally held on the 1st weekend (Saturday and Sunday) of August. Similar to Cherry Bowl, the club responsible for hosting Tri-County rotates each year and is a major production.
- Participation in individual events at Tri-County is determined by times swam during the Regular Season.
- A swimmer must hit the qualifying time for a given event; the qualifying times for each age group and stroke are listed on the Tri-County website.
- Swimmers may compete in up to two individual events at Tri-County, even if they qualified in more events.
- Participation in relay events at Tri-County is handled slightly differently.
- All teams in TCSA may enter a relay team for each relay event for the Saturday session.
- The teams with the top 12 times from the Regular Season compete in the Sunday “finals” session.
- Individual swimmers may participate in up to two relay events at Tri-County.
The format of the meet follows the format of Regular Season “A” meet, except that there are multiple heats for all of the events. The Saturday sessions are “preliminary” events. The Sunday sessions are “finals” events where the top swimmers from the Saturday preliminaries compete.
