MEETS

Minnesota Swimming (MSI) sets standards before each season so that a swimmer's time in an individual event is categorized as a (slowest to fastest) "C", "B", "A". "Champ" or "Zone" time. Then, within each meet, a swimmer with a "C" time in an event will swim against other swimmers with "C" times in the same event. There are different types of meets during the course of a season (A, A/B, B/C,C, C Finals, etc.) ending with the State Meet. These designations are established primarily to keep the meet size manageable. An "A" meet has only those swimmers who have achieved "A" or better times in the events they enter at the meet. A "B/C" meet will be open to swimmers with "B" and "C" times and so on. Most swimmers will get their first meet experience at a "B/C" meet. In each event the swimmer enters, they are given heat and lane assignments based on the fastest time they have previously achieved in that particular event. Those with the slowest times or no official times swim in the first heat while the fastest swimmers swim last, except in the longer distance events where faster swimmers swim in the first heats. Within each heat, the fastest swimmers swim in the middle lanes of the pool. As a swimmer moves from, for example, a "C" time to a "B" time in a particular event, she/he will swim against other "B" swimmers in that event in the future meets. Once a particular time standard has been achieved, the swimmer will remain in that grouping until he/she moves up to the next time standard. Swimmers need to achieve a Champ time to be eligible to swim in the State Meet in that event at the end of the season.