A Meets
A Meets are the competitive division meets held each Saturday morning throughout the season. We will have 5 A Meets during the season. A meet warm ups begin at 8am for home meets and 8:25am for away meets. Meets begin at 9am and typically last until 11:30am or so. We often try to have lunch together as a team after an away meet.
Typically, the three swimmers with the fastest individual times for each event within an age group are asked to swim at that Saturday’s A Meet. Since the teams we swim against for A Meets are based on team strength and not location, the A Meets can be anywhere in Northern Virginia, sometimes at home or just down the road and other times up to 40 minutes away.
In Saturday meets, the home team swims in lanes 1, 3, and 5 while the visiting team swims in lanes 2, 4, and 6. The fastest swimmers swim in lanes 3 and 4, the next fastest in lanes 5 and 2, and the next fastest in lanes 1 and 6. Lane 1 is always on the right side as you stand facing the pool at the starting end.
A Meets also include relays – something we don’t do in B Meets. 8 and unders do a freestyle relay, while older swimmers swim medley relays (one swimmer swims each stroke). We end the meet with a mixed-age freestyle relay. The Mixed Age Relays are swum by, in order, an 11-12 year old, a 9-10 year old, a 13- 14 year old, and a 15-18 year old.
A meet results will be posted on the NVSL website usually sometime late Saturday afternoon. http://www.mynvsl.com/ You can also check the site to see where your A-meet swimmer ranks within the division or across the NVSL. In a swim meet, you compete both as an individual and as a team. Scoring an A Meet: 1st place receives 5 points, 2nd place receives 3 points and 3rd place receives 1 point. No points are awarded for places 4-6. Relay winners receive 5 points; no points for the second place relay. In the event of a tie, the points are split between the swimmers. In a tie for first place, each swimmer receives 4 points and no second place would be awarded. In a tie for second place, each swimmer earns 2 points and no third place would be awarded. For a third place tie, each swimmer is award 1/2 point.A Meet swimmers may compete in up to two individual events, plus team relays. Seeding times will be based on your best time from the season. It’s important to note that just because you’re not seeded 1st, 2nd or 3rd doesn’t mean you won’t get to swim an A meet! It’s not uncommon for a strong swimmer to be at or near the top of the ladder (the list of who swims each stroke fastest) in every stroke. But since that swimmer can only swim two strokes at the A Meet, often the 4th, 5th or even 6th on the ladder will get a chance to swim. People also take vacations or get sick during the season and are unable to swim. That’s why it’s important to update your availability with the coaches and Team Reps for each meet. Never assume you won’t be needed at an A meet! Coach Brett will let swimmers know at practice on Tuesday/Wednesday who will swim. Those names are turned over officially to the other team on Thursday afternoon. After we turn over our list of names to the other team, we can’t change it. We can “scratch” and swim someone else who is slower than your child instead of them, but if a different combination of swimmers and events makes more sense, it’s too late to make that change.
In order to swim at Divisionals, a swimmer must not miss more than two "A" meets. If a swimmer misses more than two "A" meets, they will not be eligible to compete and the next eligible swimmer will be offered the opportunity to swim.
