• Six Days Before the Meet: Victoria Gerdes will send out an email through Swimtopia saying the meet is OPEN for swimmer declaration, which allows you to go in and declare IN or OUT to the upcoming meet. (typically sent the Friday before a Thursday meet).
  • Please make every effort to stick to your declaration - it is difficult and time consuming to try to add swimmers later; and when swimmers drop it can cancel relays which is disappointing for the swimmers.
• Four Days Before the Meet: We will CLOSE the event (typically by noon Monday before Thursday meets) so we can partner with the other team to produce Meet Entries.
• Evening Before or Morning of the Meet: Victoria will send the finalized Meet Entries PDF that tells you which event numbers, heats and lanes your child will swim in.
• Morning of Meet: During practice coaches will write on your child their events/heats/lanes for that evening. If you're not there, don't worry! We will email an example of how to do it at home and remind you to use a sharpie and to not put spray sunscreen on it after (this makes it wipe away).
• This process is repeated before each meet.

• Chairs for parents to sit in
• CASH for concessions. For home meets, we will offer pulled pork sandwiches, pizza, walking tacos (taco meat and toppings inside a corn chip bag), mac-n-cheese, fruit, chips, candy, popsicles, and an assortment of non-alcoholic beverages. Away meet concessions may vary. 

For Your Swimmer

• Goggles (and a back-up pair)
• Swim cap
• 2 Towels (one to sit on and one to dry off)
• Water bottle 
• Snacks
• Games like cards, books, coloring books; please avoid bringing items that they will be sad or angry to damage or lose like electronics 
• Bug spray
• Sunscreen (but don't put on the arm that has name and meet entries)

This, for example, is how it appears on the Meet Entry PDF.

This is how it should be written on your swimmer's arm or leg.

Please use black sharpie! And note that sunscreen removes the sharpie so please note when applying.

• An average swim meet lasts three and a half hours and begin at 5:30 p.m. This is contingent upon factors such as weather, size of the opposing team and general flow of the meet. 
• The 6 and under age group only has events in the first half of each meet; therefore, they will be able to leave around 7 or 7:30 p.m. The second half ends around 9 p.m. or later. All swimmers 7 and up swim in the both halves of the meet.
• It’s important that your child be at the warm-up period prior to the meet (4 p.m. for a home meet and 4:30 p.m. for an away meet). Swimmers will report to a designated bullpen area. 

A Basic Timeline:

4:00 p.m. Home Team arrives

4:30 - 4:50 Home Team Warms Up

4:55 - 5:15 Away Team Warms Up

5:15 Head Coach/ASA Meeting and Timer Meeting

5:20 Start lining up for first events

5:30 Meet Begins

7:00 First half ends (approximately)

9:00 Second half ends (approximately)

• 6 & Under 100 Freestyle Relays
• Medley Relay Events (7 - 18-year-olds)
• Freestyle Events
• Backstroke Events
• Individual Medley Events
• Breaststroke Events
• Butterfly Events
• Freestyle Relay Events (7 - 18-year-olds)

A relay is an event in which four swimmers participate in the race. This means that three other children are depending on them to complete an event. Please DO NOT take your child home before they swim in their designated relay. This would cause disappointment on the part of the other relay teammates.

Freestyle Relay: Four swimmers each swim freestyle. The distance differs by age group.

Medley Relay: Four swimmers participate, each swimming a different stroke. The first swimmer swims Backstroke (BA), the second Breaststroke (BR), the third Butterfly (FL), and the fourth Freestyle (FR). An easy way to remember this is: BA, BR, FL, FR are in alphabetical order.