League and Meet Entry Overview

The JRAC Season.  SRA swims in the James River Aquatic Club (JRAC), and the JRAC rules govern all SRA meets.  Our season consists of six dual meets where we swim against one other team in our division of JRAC, and then the Championships, where we swim against swimmers from all the teams in JRAC.

Age Groups.  JRAC divides all swimmers into five age groups: 8 & Under, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, and 15-18. You might hear experienced swimmers and parents refer to these age groups by names like Mites or Juniors—these were the names prior to the 2021 season. 

Classifications.  Within each age group, swimmers compete in four competitive classes: Novice (N), Regular (R), X, and XX. The default for every new swimmer is Novice, so many swimmers will be in Novice heats, especially at the start of the season. This gets a little dense, but bear with me:  JRAC sets qualifying times for each competitive class in each age group and event, and you can find those on the JRAC website (JRACSummerSwim.org). Once a swimmer swims faster than the R qualifying time for an event, he or she can’t swim in N heats, and the same with X and XX. Think of it as leveling up! Swimmers carry over their times in the same event from year to year, although the time cutoffs for classifications get faster with each age group. 

This system is GREAT, because it allows swimmers to score points for the team even if they aren’t the fastest at a particular stroke. Each class (N/R/X/XX) has first place, second place, etc., so a strong team needs good swimmers in all time classifications. 

Meet Limits.  To limit the length of meets (and believe me, that’s important!), some events have a cap on how many swimmers can be entered. Freestyle never has caps, and each meet also has one “stroke of the week” which has no caps. The stroke of the week rotates among backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly. This gives swimmers who can swim a stroke legally a chance to swim it in a meet. 

Finally, JRAC rules restrict each swimmer to a max of four events including one relay per meet. It is the coaches’ job to figure out who should swim what events each week. The coaches are trying to help swimmers develop, maximize team points for the meet, and optimize team construction for the championship meet (“Champs”) at the end of the season. 

Relays.  Each meet has either a freestyle relay or a medley relay for each age group. All JRAC relays are mixed (boys and girls) with a minimum of two girls. All relays are swum in a single heat, so there are only three relays per age group, listed on the event sheet by letter, A (fastest), B, and C. For freestyle relays, you’ll see the letter of the relay followed by which leg the swimmer is swimming.  For medley relays, you’ll see the letter of the relay followed by the stroke.

Event Order.  The order of events at meets is designed to help families with beginning swimmers get home earlier. The 8 & Under relay (either freestyle or medley) is always first, followed by the Individual Medley events for all ages. That is followed by freestyle and then the stroke of the week. You are free to leave once your events are complete—so if you only have an 8 & Under swimmer who is only swimming freestyle, you may be done by 7:30 (lucky, lucky you). The relays for 9-10s and older are always the last events of the meet.  DO NOT LEAVE EARLY if your 9+ swimmer is in a relay—the other swimmers in that relay will be unable to swim their event if your child is missing!

At the meets, each event is run in multiple heats, and swimmers are seeded based on their fastest time in that event. Heats run slowest to fastest, and for the non-freestyle, non-stroke-of-the-week events, there may only be one or two heats. On the other hand, for 8 & Under Girls 25 Freestyle, there may be as many as ONE MILLION heats. 

Champs.  The Champs meet has much tighter restrictions on the number of swimmers who can compete, so throughout the season the coaches are trying to build a Champs roster with fast swimmers in each event and classification by carefully choosing the event entries at each week’s meet.

A couple of other notes:

• Starred Entries.  Sometimes, a swimmer might be entered in an event with an asterisk after the classification. This means the coaches are entering the swimmer in a faster classification heat than the swimmer’s current best time (N swimmers can “swim up” in R heats, but not vice versa).

• Finding Entries.  The coaches will post the entries for the upcoming meet on the bulletin board between the bathrooms at SRA.  It’s a good idea to make note of the events your child is swimming--maybe take a picture with your phone. The coaches will also usually e-mail the meet entries so you can plan your schedule.  The entries are also usually posted on the SRA Swim Team Facebook group and the pages will be brought to the meet in case your swimmer needs to check them. 

• Fun with Sharpies.  On the day of the swim meet or when you arrive, it’s a good idea to write your child’s events on his or her arm with a permanent marker (it’ll wash off in a few days). For each event, they’ll need the event number, and maybe also the distance and stroke. Your child’s Big Buddy can show you how to do this. This will help your child know what events to listen for and be in the right place at the right time.  Meet volunteers also know to look for these. Also, for very young kids, consider writing their first and last names on their shoulder, as this can really help meet volunteers get kids in the right heat even if they aren’t paying attention. 

• Exhibition Entries.  If the host pool for a meet has an eight-lane pool, teams can enter extra swimmers or relays in Exhibition. Exhibition times are official times for classification purposes, but Exhibition swimmers/relays don’t score points in that meet.

Meet Results.  The coaches usually send out the meet results shortly after the meet.  The results will show the finish times and also indicate the classification of the finish time (XX, R, etc.) and points scored.  If the classification has a plus sign after it, that means it’s the first time the swimmer has achieved the new classification.  You may also see “QUA,” which means that swimmer has swum a Champs-qualifying time in the event.  The Qualifying times are set by JRAC and may be slower than or equal to the R time for an event.