So How do Meets work…

Most of our meets are dual meets, which means two teams compete against each other.

The JV heat of the event is run first, then the varsity heat. Some times there will be an “exhibition” heat, which would precede the JV heat. Dual meets take about 2 hours to complete depending on the numbers of divers.

The order of events is always the same:

200 Medley Relay: 4 swimmers doing 50 yards (2 lengths) of the pool in the following order:

backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle

200 Freestyle (8 lengths)

200 Individual Medley (IM) 50 yards each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle in that order

50 freestyle

Diving (6 dives per diver) Judges scores are totaled, then multiplied by degree of difficulty (DD)

Usually a 10-15 minute warm up is provided for the swimmers before the swimming events resume

100 butterfly (4 lengths)

100 freestyle

500 freestyle (20 lengths)

200 freestyle relay (4x50)

100 backstroke

100 breaststroke

400 freestyle relay (4x100)

Each team can enter 3 relays or swimmers to possibly score.

Scoring:

For relays, only the top 3 earn points, and only two relays per team can score. 1st place 8 points, 2nd place 4 points, 3rd place 2 points.

For individual events, 5 places score. 1st 6 points, 2nd 4 points, 3rd 3 points, 4th 2 points, 5th 1 point.

Mathematically, the meet is won when a team reaches 93 points before the last event. Usually, a team will stop scoring (swim the events as exhibition) after reaching that point total rather than running up the score. It is a sportsmanship thing…

On a rare occasion, a swim meet will end in a tie score (93-93). “I have experienced only 5 ties in my coaching career,” says Coach Green

A swimmer can be disqualified in an event for various reasons, the most common being an illegal turn, stroke or finish. Various rules govern how each stroke needs to be performed. If a relay is disqualified, it is usually because of a false start on a relay exchange.