SWIM MEET INFORMATION AND PROPOSED SCHEDULE:

USA swim meets are different than SAL meets in several respects:

• They are not “dual meets”, in which our team swims another team; they are more like SAL Invitationals, in that swimmers select their events and are matched against other swimmers with similar times.

• Like SAL Invitationals, all require a per-event payment.   

• But there are several respects in which these meets are NOT like our Invitationals.  


• They take place over a wide area – some as far as 2 or 3 hours away.    MA swim covers an area from Southern New Jersey through central PA and Delaware.   (We hope to concentrate our meets to locations no more than an hour away.)

• Some meets have “qualifying times”, meaning that swimmers have to have an official time that is faster than (or sometimes slower than) a particular time standard.    Official times are those that are swum in USA swim meets; SAL times  (except for League Champs) do not count.

• A swimmer’s age for any given meet is their age on the first day of that meet.    Note that this is different than SAL’s system; a November 2 birthday means nothing in USA swimming!
  

• There are many more events at a USA swim meet, including longer distances (200 yards in each stroke;  400 IM’s) that are available even to younger swimmers.    USA swim meets also feature distance freestyle events (500, 1000,  and 1650), usually in a separate session.    Thus, USA swimmers have a chance to try events that are not available to them in SAL meets.    (Remember: swimmers choose their events!  No one is going to force your 10 year old to swim a 200 fly.)

• Any registered USA swimmer can attend any USA meet they want to, whether or not the any other members of the team are attending.   We will designate a certain number of meets each season as “Team Effort” meets, meaning that we will send a UMAC coach.     If swimmers wish to attend a meet that is NOT a team effort meet, they can register on their own as an unaccompanied swimmer; let us know if you want to do this so we can make sure to pick up your times.   Frequently, the host team will seat unaccompanied swimmers on deck with their own team and coaches.   Parents are NOT allowed on deck unless they are working the meet.

• USA meets typically take place over several days, with two or three sessions per day.    Some swimmers choose to attend the entire meet, which means they are swimming two or three days; others come for one session on one day.   Sessions are usually around 4 hours in length.

USA swim meets often fill up quickly; many teams ask swimmers to register several months in advance to avoid this.    We will have to move quickly to get our swimmers into the first meet we have selected: Delaware Swim Team’s Last Chance Meet, the weekend of February 18-19.    This meet is important because it will be the only chance this season for our swimmers to qualify for the second meet, Junior Olympics, which is held the weekend of March  9 - 11.   (Swimmers who attend the SAL League Champs will also be able to count those times, as this is an official USA meet as well.)   Our final spring meet, which all swimmers are eligible for, will be either the Regional Champs (held in Delaware) or the Silver Champs (held at the Glouchester County Institute of Technology, in New Jersey); both will be held the weekend of March 30 – April 1. 

As soon as the DST Last Chance meet information is available, we will post it with a pretty fast closing date;  I’ll send an email to everyone who has signed up for or inquired about USA swimming as soon as that happens.  (We’ll also include it on the website and in our regular email.)   

PROPOSED SCHEDULE OF TEAM EFFORT MEETS:

DELAWARE SWIM TEAM’S LAST CHANCE MEET - Registration Documents

February 18-19, at the University of Delaware

This meet is open to all USA registered swimmers

MA JUNIOR OLYMPICS

March 9 – 11, at Glouchester County Institute of Technology, in New Jersey

This meet is open only to USA registered swimmers ages 14 and under who meet the time standards.

(Note: there is a Senior Champs for older swimmers who meet the time standards; the details for this meet have not been announced, but we will consider sending a coach if we have any swimmers who qualify and would like to go.)

MIDDLE ATLANTIC SILVER CHAMPS (at GCIT)

or

MIDDLE ATLANTIC REGIONAL CHAMPS (University of Delaware)

Both March 30 – April 1.

This meet is open to all of our registered swimmers, though there are some restrictions on events.