Maybe you’ve swum on a club team half your life and you’re thinking it can’t possibly be that different.
Maybe you’re a Senior who joined the team on a whim and now that you’re standing behind the blocks, you’re wondering just what on earth you’ve gotten yourself into.
Either way, you’re in the right place.
Season and Teams
Triton is a member of the Cape Ann League. The other league teams include Ipswich, Manchester-Essex, Hamilton-Wenham, plus two other co-op teams, North Reading/Wakefield, and Lynnfield/Wilmington. We swim the winter season, which runs from the Monday after Thanksgiving through the middle of February. (Massachusetts does have a Fall Swim season, but teams may only swim one or the other). We also swim non-league and invitational meets.
Order of Events
All high school meets nationwide follow the same order:
1 – 200 Medley Relay. (Back, Breast, Fly, Free)
2 – 200 Free
3 – 200 IM
4 – 50 Free
5 – 1M Diving (if held – if not, there must be a 10 minute break)
6 – 100 Fly
7 – 100 Free
8 – 500 Free
9 – 200 Free Relay
10 – 100 Back
11 – 100 Breast
12 – 400 Free Relay
Note: High School meets tend to run very quickly, and you will often have little rest between events. Everyone else is dealing with the same thing and so long as you put in the work, you do get used to it!
Season Format
The regular season runs from the second week in December through the end of January/beginning of February. If you’re used to a club season where you have meets once or twice a month, you’ll instead be racing 2 (even 3) times per week. The season tends to fly by, but it can be exhausting. On the bright side, all that race experience frequently translates into some pretty impressive improvement in your times.
For post-season, we participate in three levels of championships
- CAL Open: Usually held the first weekend in February. All team members qualify to swim this Invitational meet and their are no cut times, except sometimes in the 500.
- North Sectionals: Usually held the second weekend in February. Girls swim Saturday, Boys swim Sunday. This meet has challenging cut times and generally speaking, only the team’s fastest swimmers can make them. Note: Regardless of how many swimmers actually make a cut, we can only put 4 swimmers in any individual event and 1 relay.
- Division 2 States. Usually held the third weekend in February. Girls swim Saturday, Boys swim Sunday. This meet also has cut times, which are slightly faster than Sectionals. The same entry limits apply.
Meet Formats
Double Dual
In the Cape Ann League, this is what we swim. girls and boys swim and score points separately, with girls swimming first. In this format, there are 24 events.
Coed
Some of our non-league opponents swim girls and boys together in the same races, and relays can be mixed gender. Lineup strategy becomes critical and the unpredictability of relays makes them extra exciting. It’s fun to mix things up now and then, so we’ll usually do this once a year or so. In this format, there are 12 events.
Invitational
All this really means is more than two teams are swimming at the meet. Each combination is scored as a separate dual meet.
Championship
Each team can score up to 4 swimmers in each event and 2 relays.
Swimmers can score points for 1-16 places.
Scoring
The biggest surprise for many about high school swimming is that it’s not an individual sport. It’s a team effort to see which side scores the most points
Scoring for 6 lane pools: Individual: 6-4-3-2-1 Relay: 8-4-2
Scoring for 4 lane pools: Individual: 4-3-1 Relay: 6 4 2
Championship format: Individual: 20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Relay: 40-34-32-30-28-26-24-22-18-14-12-10-8-6-4-2