Windsor Dolphins

If you and your family are new to CARA, here are some things to expect from swim meets!

The week leading up to our swim meets we will announce further details about expectations, including time to arrive, warm-up times, parking instructions, etc.

Outside of particular events, here are some other things to keep in mind:

• What to bring
  • PLEASE BRING:
    • Swim suit
    • Cap and goggles
    • Towel
    • Team T-Shirt (on its way!)
    • Healthy snacks and lots of water
    • Warm clothes for in between events
    • Change of clothes for when you're done swimming
    • Necessary items (EPIPEN, inhaler, etc.)
• Snack suggestions
  • We hope to see the kiddos eating healthy and energy-providing foods!
  • Here are a few links with some swim meet snack ideas:
    • https://eatswimwin.com/swim-meet-snacks/
    • https://www.signupgenius.com/Sports/easy-swim-meet-snack-ideas.cfm
  • Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions regarding snacks
• Timeline, etc.
  • Timelines are difficult to predict with these swim meets, sometimes they run smoothly and others can have delays, so please expect swim meets to run long!
  • Announcements will be sent out at the beginning of the week prior to the meet about times of arrival, times of warm-ups, and when to expect swim meets to begin.

In some instances, the heat sheet for an upcoming swim meet may be provided to you prior to the meet. If that is the case, please feel free to mark you child(ren)'s events on their arm as such:

You can mark your swimmer to reflect which event, heat, lane, and relay they are racing. This is used to help remind the swimmer of their events and when to swim. 

Use the Heat Sheet to find and highlight your child's events.

Mark the arm as illustrated below in the order of Event/Heat/Lane/Relay Leg. Write on clean dry skin with no sunscreen. It is best to do this the night before in order to minimize sunscreen washing it away.

Marking your Swimmer

• Meet events are standard
• An event might be "combined" due to the number of swimmers in an event heat.
• Find your child’s race information on the Event Reports/Heat Sheets.
• Label your swimmers with a black sharpie with their race details.
• On their forearm, mark their event information:
  • E = event
  • H = heat
  • L = lane
  • Follow with the event being swam (EX: 50 FR (fifty freestyle) or 100 Med R - A (100 medley relay - A Relay (we may have more than one Windsor team in the same heat))

Stroke

• FR = Freestyle
• BK = Backstroke
• BR = Breaststroke
• FLY = Butterfly
• IM = Individual Medley
• FR R = Free Relay (All swimmers swim freestyle)
• Med R = Medley Relay (swimmers will swim one of the four strokes)

What is a Heat Sheet? What Does it say?

The Heat Sheet is a program that shows all the participating swimmers and what events they will participate in as well as the heat number and lane number. The announcer will say the event and heat number and there is also an event sign with this information.

NOTE: Changes to the Heat Sheet could be made the day of the meet based on swimmers who don't arrive on time or do not attend. We could also "combine" races to speed up the meet. For example, if we have 3 girls swimming Fly in the 15-17 age group and 3 boys -- we may combine them into one heat to save time.

The announcer will say if heats are combined. Please pay attention when it gets close to the time of your swimmer's event. Also -- please be flexible as some kids change their mind the day of the race of what they 'feel' like swimming and our coach works very hard to make sure she only has swimmers in races they feel confident about.

Event Number: # of event may vary meet to meet depending on the team we are swimming against. We swim the Individual Medley, Freestyle Relay, Backstroke, Freestyle, Medley Relay, Breaststroke and Butterfly.

Heat Number: In each of the events, there are HEATS. Each heat may have 5-8 swimmers - depending on the size of the pool.

Lane Number: This will tell you which lane your swimmer is scheduled to be in.

Seed Time: Once a swimmer participates legally in an event, they will have a "seed time" in that event for the next meet. Swimmers are placed in heats and relays according to their seed times. It's the swimmer's fastest time prior to this meet (if they have a previous time).

Finals Time: The time they swam at this meet

Heat Winner: First child to touch the wall. Ribbons are distributed per heat so if an event has multiple heats, each swimmer will get a ribbon relative to the heat, not the overall event.