Parliament Panthers

Saturday Meets, also known as “A Meets”, are NVSL-sanctioned meets. The team that performs the best in each division (best record and most points earned) becomes the Division Champion. Saturday Meets are scored, and generally the fastest swimmers are selected to compete. 

Throughout each week, the coaches prepare the meet sheet, a listing of all swimmers competing in that week's A Meet and which events (strokes) they are swimming. Three swimmers can be entered in each individual event. One relay team may be entered in each relay event. Putting together a meet sheet for A Meets is akin to completing a giant jigsaw puzzle. The coaches try to position swimmers to optimize points and win. Since the coaches are placing swimmers in races to maximize scoring, swimmers might not necessarily swim their fastest or favorite strokes.

A minimum of 6 swimmers in each gender/age group is required to “fill” all the lanes in a Saturday Meet. A single swimmer can compete in no more than 2 individual events (plus relays) in an A Meet. This event limit and the fact that swimmers' availabilities can change from week to week (due to family vacations, camps, and other obligations), means that it's not always the 6 fastest swimmers who are selected to compete each week.

Since we are a small pool, swimmers may “swim up” at the coaches' discretion. This means that a younger swimmer might swim in an older age category to help "fill" the lanes. 

Seeding
In Saturday meets, the home team has lanes 1, 3, and 5 while the visiting team has lanes 2, 4, and 6. The fastest swimmers swim in lanes 3 and 4, the next fastest in lanes 2 and 5, and the next fastest in lanes 1 and 6. Swimmers are seeded based upon their fastest times attained in prior competition. Lane 1 is always on the right side as you stand facing the pool at the starting end.

Scoring
In individual events, a 1st place finish earns 5 points for the team, a 2nd place is 3 points, and a 3rd place is 1 point. Relays are scored as 5 points for the winner and 0 points for the loser. There are 420 points up for grabs in a Saturday Meet. Unless there are one or more places not awarded in an event due to disqualifications (DQs) or lack of swimmers, you need 211 points to win. 

When there is a tie for any place in an event, the points for the places involved are equally split among the swimmers. For example, in a two-way tie for second place, each swimmer earns 2 points (3 points for second plus I point for third equals 4 points, half for each swimmer). No third place would be awarded because the next swimmer is fourth. For a third place tie, each swimmer is awarded 1/2 point.

Ribbons
Ribbons are awarded for 1st through 6th place finishes in all meets. Ribbons will be placed in swimmers' folders kept at the Pool's front desk. Ribbons will also be given each time a swimmer swims a personal best!

Meet Warm Ups & Caravan
All Saturday Meets begin at 9:00 am, unless a change happens. 

Home Meets

• Swimmers need to report to the deck at 7:50
• Warm up is 8:00-8:20 am

Away Meets

• We caravan from the Parliament Pool parking lot and drive together (this is an important bonding time for swimmers and all swimmers are strongly encouraged to participate)
• Departure time depends on the travel distance/time and will be announced each week 
• Warm up for is 8:20-8:40 am

Who is Swimming?
The coaches will notify the swimmers during Friday practice if/what they are swimming the Saturday’s Meet. A meet sheet will also be emailed to parents on Thursday/Friday.

Notifying Coaches of Absences
For each Saturday Meet, we have to finalize the list of who is swimming in each meet by Wednesday night so we can share it with the opposing team on Thursday evening. After this occurs, we can only replace missing swimmers with a swimmer who has a slower recorded time in the event of the seeded swimmer. We cannot swap swimmers among events to optimize our swim selections.

Events
Saturday Meets consist of 40 Individual events and 12 Relays. The events swum for each stroke and age group are shown below. Remember that each pool length is 25 meters.

NOTES:
1. The order of events is to go down each column starting on the left side except that the mixed age relays are the last two events.

2. 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.