A Meets
A Meets are the official MCSL competition meets between divisional teams. These are held on Saturday mornings. We encourage your swimmers to come and cheer even if they’re not swimming – A meets are exciting and fun!
A meets are invitational, which means that the coaches will decide who swims which event. There are 50 events in each A meet.
Individual events: Each age group (8 and under, 9–10, 11–12, 13–14, and 15–18) has separate boys’ and girls’ events in each of the four strokes. In addition, there are individual medley (IM) events, which incorporate all strokes. IM events are divided into boys’ and girls’ events for the following age groups: 12 and under, 13–14, and 15–18.
Relays: There are two types of relays swum at each A meet, with separate races for boys and girls. The 200M Medley Relay is open to any age (but is typically swum by our older swimmers), and includes 50M each of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle. The 14 and Under 175M Freestyle Relay has specific age group and distance protocols: 50M legs are swum by a 9–10 swimmer, an 11–12 swimmer, and a 13–14 swimmer, respectively, with the last 25M swum by an 8 and under swimmer.
Each relay event can have up to two teams per club, giving us a maximum of 2 boy relays and 2 girl relays in each event.
Swimmers can be entered in a maximum of three individual stroke events and a maximum of five total events (including IM and relays). Freestyle events can have six swimmers per event.
Ribbons are awarded for 1st to 6th place for individual events and 1st to 4th place for relays.
Many factors go into the decision-making process, but generally the swimmers with the top six times in freestyle and those with the top three times in the other strokes in each age group will be selected to represent the team in A meets. However, because swimmers are permitted to swim only three individual events, different swimmers may also be chosen to swim. In general, relay swimmers will be chosen from the pool of A meet swimmers.
| Boys | Event | Girls |
| 1 | 12 and Under 100M IM | 2 |
| 3 | 13–14 100M IM | 4 |
| 5 | 15–18 100M IM | 6 |
| 7 | 8 and Under 25M Freestyle | 8 |
| 9 | 9–10 50M Freestyle | 10 |
| 11 | 11–12 50M Freestyle | 12 |
| 13 | 13–14 50M Freestyle | 14 |
| 15 | 15–18 100M Freestyle | 16 |
| 17 | 8 and Under 25M Backstroke | 18 |
| 19 | 9–10 25M Backstroke | 20 |
| 21 | 11–12 50M Backstroke | 22 |
| 23 | 13–14 50M Backstroke | 24 |
| 25 | 15–18 100M Backstroke | 26 |
| Ten-Minute Break | ||
| 27 | Open 200M Medley Relay | 28 |
| 29 | 8 and Under 25M Breaststroke | 30 |
| 31 | 9–10 25M Breaststroke | 32 |
| 33 | 11–12 50M Breaststroke | 34 |
| 35 | 13–14 50M Breaststroke | 36 |
| 37 | 15–18 100M Breaststroke | 38 |
| 39 | 8 and Under 25M Butterfly | 40 |
| 41 | 9–10 25M Butterfly | 42 |
| 43 | 11–12 50M Butterfly | 44 |
| 45 | 13–14 50M Butterfly | 46 |
| 47 | 15–18 100M Butterfly | 48 |
| Five-Minute Break | ||
| 49 | 175M Freestyle Relay | 50 |
There are no weighted events, and 8 and Under 1st place earns exactly the same number of points as a 15-18 1st place. And every swimmer in an A meet contributes to the win, whether they’re 1st, 5th, 12th, or disqualified. This is why it is imperative that we fill our lanes at all of our meets. We NEVER want to leave open lanes at an A meet. Empty lanes mean zero points for our team (and more points for the opponent), and even more unfortunately, an opportunity lost for another swimmer to participate. Leaving empty lanes also hurts the team in division assignments for the next season. Divisions are determined by a computerized swim-off algorithm, and empty lanes means fewer points for the Hammerheads.
It is possible that a swimmer will be asked to swim up (swim against the next-oldest age group; e.g., with the 11-12 group as a 10-year-old) if we have open lanes. Please declare your swimmer’s availability early – it will help the coaches plan for all eventualities.
