good morning! Since we have so many new families this year I thought I would give a quick rundown of what a swim meet looks like. I remember the first year not even knowing the difference between freestyle and butterfly so I understand that there are probably a lot of questions. 🤣🤣

During a swim meet, there are 68 events that the athletes can swim. Each event is broken up into age group such as six and under, 7–8, 9–10, 11–12, 13–14, and 15-18. The meet begins with a medley relay which has all four strokes swam by 4 different swimmers. Athletes 10 and under swim one length (25 yards) and athletes 11 and up swim 2 lengths (50 yards). After this medley is done, we get into the individual events. Generally at a swim meet your swimmer will swim two or three individual events and one or two relays (max of 4 events allowed). All swimmers can participate in The freestyle relays at the end of the meet.  The decisions about the events are made prior to the meet as I sit down with the coaches and try to determine which athlete fits best into which event. Everything is computerized and the scores will be known at the end of the meet. Place ribbons are awarded for all events and they will be given at the following practice for all who participated. 
On the day of the meet, we asked that you arrive at the showtime which will provided the week of the meet. For home meets our showtime is 0730, warm up at 0800-0820 and the meet starts at 0900. You do not need to bring kickboards, fins or any of the practice items. We ask that your swimmer have sunscreen, water, towels, their suit, swim cap If they are going to wear one, and some items to entertain themselves. When you arrive at the pool, we ask that you check in with the coaches so they know you are present. We will have a 20 minute warm-up prior to the start and then we will start to get the kids ready for their first event. The ready bench parents are responsible for making sure the kids are in the right place and this takes a lot of patience and some running around to find kids at times. We try to keep the swimmers together so that no one misses their events. 
i’m sure there is information that I am missing but after the first meet many of these things will make sense. I am always available to answer any questions you may have and I look forward to this week at practice!