Vikings Policy Regarding Swim Meets

All swimmers in the program must be available for all league events. The Head Coach will evaluate exceptions on a case-by-case basis. End of Season Championship Meets are REQUIRED for all team members, if qualified. Any swimmer unable to fulfill team swim-meet and practice requirements should not register for the program!

Purpose of Competition

The Coaching Staff of the Vikings Swim Program will provide every swimmer able the opportunity to compete in a wide variety of competitions throughout the year round swim season.  These competitions will vary in location, length, and level of competition and are chosen in order to provide swimmers with the best and most appropriate level of competition at certain points within each season.  Meet schedules will be set at the beginning of each season and are subject to change due to coach’s decision or meet oversubscription.  Meet schedules will be set for the entire team and will designate which groups should attend each meet.  The Greater Holyoke YMCA Vikings Swim Team is a dual USA Swimming and YMCA Swimming affiliated team which allows the team the option to compete in both YMCA only sanctioned competitions and USA Swimming Competitions

YMCA Swimming Meets

  1. League Dual/Invitational Meets:  Are typically evening events or single day weekend events and generally last a couple of hours; these are very low pressure meets and are a great event for first timers to gain some experience.
  2. YMCA Invitational Meets:  Are meets that tend to be multi-session meets divided up by age group.  These meets are generally larger meets with multiple teams from other YMCAs participating.  These meets generally run between 1 and 3 days in length.  
  3. Winter Season Championships: 
    1. Western Mass YMCA Championship
    2. New England YMCA Championship (cut times required)
    3. YMCA SCY National Championships (cut times required)
  4. Summer Season Championships:
    1. YMCA League Championship
    2. YMCA LCM National Championships (cut times required)

USA Swimming Meets

  1. Invites:  Meets are generally 1-3 days in length and may or may not require some travel (these meets may also require cut times which will be outlined in the meet information on the website).  These are meets attended by a large number of teams and tend to run 3-5 hours per session.  
  2. Timed Finals:  Meets labeled as Timed Finals meets are meets in which all swimmers will be placed based upon their swim in the competition and will only swim each event one time.  The majority of competitions will be held in this format.
  3. Trials/Finals:  Meets labeled as Trials/Finals meets are meets which are split into two separate competition periods per day.  A Trials or Prelims Session is swam first to determine a swimmers initial placing in an event.  Meets will have a set number of Finals generally labeled as A-Final, B-Final, and C-Final each final will have swimmers placed within them based on the swimmers trials or prelims performance.  (The number of finals offered and places within each final will be located in the meet information on the team website.)  Once a swimmer has qualified to return to swim in a finals session they are locked into the placing within that final regardless of the time swam in the finals competition.
  4. Championships:  USA Regionals, Age Group Championships, Senior Championships, Sectional Championship, Junior National Championships, US Open Championships, and Olympic/World Championship Trials (all require cut times to attend)

Team Travel Meets:  HYV does a number of travel meets throughout the calendar year including but not limited to Championship Style Meets.  Swimmers in groups that do team travel will be invited to attend these meets.  Some team travel meets and Championship Meets will require swimmers to meet time standards set at the beginning of the season to determine athlete’s eligibility.  Swimmers attending travel meets as members of HYV will be held to a certain standard of behavior.  (See Team Travel Policy). 

Swimmers signing up for the Vikings Swim Team will be encouraged to participate in team competitions once they possess the appropriate skill set required for competition.  Swimmers in HYV’s Training Programs are expected to participate in all Championship Meets for which they qualify.

• YMCA Swimming: www.ymcaswimminganddiving.org

• USA Swimming: www.usaswimming.org