Swim Meet 101
WHAT SHOULD MY CHILD BRING TO A SWIM MEET?
Your child should bring the following to a swim meet:
- A towel (or two)
- Sunscreen
- Water
- Sharpe - to write your swimmer's events down
- Goggles - also a spare pair just in case a strap breaks
- Something to do between events
- A blanket or chairs
WHAT EXACTLY IS A SWIM MEET?
A swim meet is a competition between two or more teams. HFST participates in two types of swim meets:
- Dual Meet - competition between two teams. We participate in 5 of these throughout the season.
- Championship Meets - many teams competing for individual or team titles. We participate in three championship meets: Silver, Bronze and Gold. Based on the swimmers performance throughout the Dual meets will depend on what championship meet they participate in.
HOW DO SWIM MEETS WORK?
Your child will be informed when to be at the pool (this is usually done at practice, or via email / posting on our website). This time is typically 15 minutes prior to warm-ups. It is important to have your child at the pool on time. This allows your child to confirm that they are entered into the expected event(s) and gives your child time to warm-up/swim before the start of the meet. Each child is usually put into three events. It is VERY important that your child stay until they have swam all of their events - ALL swimmers MUST check with the Head Coach before leaving. Meets are long, hot and tiring. Each event may have multiple heats and each heat may use multiple lanes of the pool. See below for clarification:
- Events: They are what each individual swimmer is swimming. They are numbered. Swimmers may swim 4 individual or 3 individual & 1 relay per meet.
- Heats: Heats are seeded according to swimmers' best official times to date and there may be several heats per event.
- Lanes: Each swimmer will have a lane number assigned. For example if freestyle is event 11 and your child is in heat 2 lane 5 on swimmers hand write down 11 / 2 / 5
HOW MANY EVENTS CAN MY CHILD SWIM IN?
Each swimmer can participate in a maximum of four events per meet.
WHAT IF MY CHILD IS UNABLE TO ATTEND A SWIM MEET?
HFST now uses a software application to keep track of swimmers and the events that they will be swimming. Parents will have the responsibility to sign in and out their swimmer(s) through the software.
WHAT IF I HAVE A QUESTION/CONCERN ABOUT THE SWIM MEET EVENT(S) IN WHICH MY CHILD IS SCHEDULED TO PARTICIPATE?
All questions or concerns regarding what a swimmer is scheduled to swim in at a meet need to be addressed with the coaches. The coaches are with the swimmers daily and know the swimmer's abilities.
WHEN CAN I EXPECT TO SEE THE MEET LINEUP?
Meet line ups must be made by each team, switched with opposing team, put in swim program, re-evaluated, fixed again, etc. Sometimes this process is still taking place Friday evenings prior to meets because of swimmer scratches, illnesses, etc. Meet lineups may not be finalized until late Friday evening after which time the meet program will be emailed out to swimmers and posted on the website.
WHEN WILL MEET RESULTS BE DISTRIBUTED?
Meet results will be distributed as soon as possibly after the meet depending on availability of League Representatives.
WILL MY CHILD RECEIVE RIBBONS FOR PARTICIPATING IN A MEET?
Meet ribbons will be in the swimmers mailboxes on Monday or Tuesday after each meet. The league supplies 1st - 4th place. HFST supplies 5th and 6th place as well as best times ribbons. The ribbons are given for top 6 overall in each age event, not each age heat. These need to be printed out and filed separately.
