Indicating Availability

Signing up for A Meets is done through the team web site. The sign up allows you to indicate a swimmer's availability (yes/no) for an A Meet.  It is as important to note when your swimmer is NOT available as it is to indicate when they are.  Please do so by the Wednesday prior to each Saturday meet. 

Indicating that your swimmer is available for an A Meet does NOT guarantee they will swim in an event only that they are available. The Coaches are solely responsible for determining the A Meet lineups and do so to provide the Demons swim team the best chance to win the meet.  If you have specific questions with regard to your swimmer, you may contact the coach - if you are contacting the coaches, please respect their team time and contact them outside of practice or meet times.

To indicate your availability for an A Meet:

1.Log into your family account.

2.Find the A-Meet either on the Event list or in the calendar

3.Click on the Attend This Event button

4.Click on your child's name.

5.Select either "Yes, please sign (name) up for this event" or "No thanks, (name) will NOT attend this event" in the "Declaration" drop down.  You may add any meet related information in the "Notes" field.

6.Click on "Save Changes".

7.Repeat for any additional swimmers.

You can indicate availability for meets happening later in the season at any time up until the deadline for that event.

 

Parents of 8 and Under Freestyle Swimmers:

Please, check with the coaches before you leave a Saturday morning meet. The 175m graduated freestyle relays are the last two events (boys and girls) of all meets. Each event requires 2 relay teams, each with a 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 and an 8 and under swimmer.

Seeding Saturday Meets

It takes the Coach 3-4 hours each week to seed the Saturday MCSL meet. The Division Records Keeper has a full set of meet results from all of the dual meets held in our division. After the first dual meet we obtain copies of these meet results and maintain a complete list of the times of ALL OF THE SWIMMERS in our division. We record the times of all Darnestown swimmers listed by age group and gender; fastest to slowest swimmer. The dual meet is seeded and pre-scored using the following procedure:

 

1)The Coach tries to guess our opponent’s line-up.

2)The Coach lists the opponent’s line-up and times divided by age group and gender.

3)Using the seeding rules in the MCSL Handbook, the coach places the Darnestown swimmers into the appropriate events. Each swimmer may compete in no more than five events. He/she may swim no more than three of the following:

• freestyle
• backstroke 
• breaststroke
• butterfly

He may also swim two/three of the following:

• graduated relay
• medley relay
• individual medley

The following criteria apply:

 

a) In general, the top three swimmers in each event will swim in the dual meet on Saturday. *

 

b) However, often a swimmer will have the fastest times in ALL events within his/her age group. When this happens, the Coach must decide which events this swimmer will be swimming. The Coach looks at our opponent’s times in that age group and places our swimmer in the events where the team will earn the most points against our opponent’s likely line-up. This process is repeated with each swimmer within an age group until all events have three participants.

 

c) The Coach will try to give those “A” swimmers who are INELIGIBLE for “B” meets an opportunity to swim each event at some time in the season. However this is not always possible and will ONLY be done if it does not jeopardize the team’s opportunity to win a dual meet.

4) When the Coach has completed the line-up for our team, then he/she pre-scores the entire meet. The Coach will notify swimmers.

5) Often, there are several possible seeding combinations that will earn Darnestown a similar number of points and still meet all of the above criteria. In these cases, “Coach’s judgment” is used and the Coach chooses the seeding that she feels will win the meet.

6) Each team may enter six swimmers in the freestyle events.

 

Saturday Dual Meets

The Saturday MCSL meets will start at 9:00 am*, with warm-ups for home meets at 7:30 am, and at 8:00 for away meets. Please arrive on time. *Note: The Divisional meet starts at 8:00 am.

 

As mentioned under Seeding, each swimmer may be seeded by the Coach to swim in up to three individual events and an IM each swimming week (Saturday-Friday). An event (including the IM) may be swum only once in an “A” or “B” meet for each swimming week, with the exception of “A” swimmers not swimming at Divisionals but swimming in the “B Super Stars Meet”.  Note: swimmers not swimming an event on Saturday may be eligible to swim in the following Wednesday night meet (see Wednesday “B” League).

 

Dual Meet Scoring

Individual Events: 6-4-3-2-1-0

Relays: 8-4-2-0

 

Ribbons are awarded for 1^st through 6^th place for individual events, and for 1^st through 3^rd place for relays.

 

Dual Meet Relays

Four relays are swum at each dual meet:

 

Open Medley

Event #3 Boys Open Medley

Event #4 Girls Open Medley

 

These relays are open to the fastest swimmers regardless of age and are swum in the following order: back, breast, butterfly, freestyle. The participants in the Open Medley Relay will be chosen prior to the start of the dual meet. Each club will enter an A and B relay team.

 

Graduated Relay

Event #49 Boys Graduated Relay

Event #50 Girls Graduated Relay

 

These relays will be swum in the following order: 8 and Under (25M), 9-10 (25M), 11-12 (50M), and 13-14 (50M). The participants in the Graduated Relay are chosen after the freestyle events have been completed for the dual meet in question. The fastest freestylers at the dual meet in each age group will generally swim the Graduated Relay that week. Each Club may enter two relay teams in each Graduated Relay event.

 

 

Relay Carnival / All-Star Relays

Each Division in MCSL holds a Divisional Relay Carnival where all six teams compete in various relays. This year Division B Relays will be held on June 22nd at Manchester Farm.  Most winning relays at the Divisional Relay Carnival will be invited to swim at All-Star Relays. The exceptions are the four relays swum at each dual meet: Boys Graduated, Girls Graduated, Boys Open Medley, and Girls Open Medley. The fastest relay teams in each division (based on all the five dual meets, Divisionals and Relay Carnival) are chosen to swim these relays at the All-Star Relays. In addition, there is one “wild card” spot per relay for teams in Section I. If Darnestown qualifies for All-Star Relays, a relay team will be chosen after the Divisional Meet and will be comprised of the fastest eligible swimmers. Sometimes the swimmers will differ from those that swam in the Divisional Relay Carnival. In general, if a swimmer is unavailable to swim for Darnestown in the Relay Carnival, then he/she will not be considered for our All-Star Relay Team.

Coaches Longcourse

On the Tuesday after the fourth dual meet, the Coaches Longcourse Meet is held at the Rockville pool. The events are the same as the non-relay events in the dual meets with doubled distance. Eight swimmers and two alternates are invited to participate in each event, based on the fastest times for all MCSL teams from the first three dual meets. A swimmer may not compete in more than two events.

 

Individual All-Stars

The Individual All-Star Meet is held the weekend after the Divisional Meets. Two heats of eight swimmers will swim each event. All Star times are used for seeding purposes. Only the fastest sixteen swimmers in the league will actually swim at the All Star Meet. See the MCSL Handbook and website for more information on this event.