OVERVIEW OF A USA SWIMMING SWIM MEET

 Hershey Aquatic Club (HAC) offers competition in USA Swimming (USAS) for swimmers ages nine (9) and older.  USAS offers a structured swimming program that ultimately leads to Olympic Trials.  This program has benefits for all levels of swimmers.

 USAS divides the United States into 59 Local Swim Committees (LSC).  HAC belongs to the Middle Atlantic (MA) LSC which includes portions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and all of Delaware.  The country is also divided into 4 Zones – Eastern, Southern, Central and Western.  Competition is offered at many levels – within each LSC, within each zone, Senior Nationals and Olympic Trials.

 HAC primarily attends meets hosted by teams within the Middle Atlantic LSC.

 A swim meet is a fantastic way to chart the improvements that a swimmer has made in each event and stroke.  The coaches carefully choose meets they believe will be beneficial for all swimmers.  The list of swim meets that HAC plans to attend for each season will be provided at the beginning of the season.  This schedule is, however, subject to modification.  USA meets are usually held over 2-3 days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday).  Friday evenings most often consist of distance events while Saturday and Sunday are divided into AM and PM sessions according to age groups.  Each session lasts up to four hours.  Swimmers may attend one day or all days of the meet during the sessions assigned to his/her age group.  The coaches strongly recommend swimming all sessions.  Session assignments differ from meet to meet, and this information will be available to club members as soon as the meet entry is received from the host club.

USAS meets are structured as a series of heats seeded from slowest up to the fastest swimmers.  This means a swimmer will be  competing against other swimmers of the same ability level in each of his/her races.

 Competitive meets have two formats.  One is called a timed final format.  In this type of meet, the swimmer swims his/her events only one time, and that swim determines his/her final placing in the meet.  Most meets are run on a timed final basis.  Awards for each event are given to the top six to eight swimmers within each level (A, B & C).

 The other format is prelims and final.  The preliminary swims are during either the AM or PM session with the objective being to qualify for an evening finals sessions.  Depending upon the meet, either the fastest 8 (in an 8-lane pool) or the fastest 16 swimmers return to swim in the evening finals competition.  If the fastest 16 swimmers return, the preliminary swimmers in the places 9 – 16 will compete in the consolation finals (consols) while the preliminary swimmers in places 1 – 8 will compete in the championship heat.  If a swimmer does not wish to return for the evening session, he/she may “scratch” the event and not be penalized is the scratch is made within one-half hour of the posting of the preliminary results.  Finals provide the swimmer with an opportunity for improvement.  At a prelims/finals meet, awards are given to those swimmers who participated in the championship heat.