Landen Meadows Gators

How do I know when my child is in a race?

A HEAT SHEET is the printed "program" for the swim meet that tells swimmers what events they will compete in. The heat sheet lists which events each swimmer will race, which group (heat) they will be racing with in their event, and in which lane the swimmer will swim.

EVENTS

Swimmers are divided into groups based on age and gender.

Each event consists of an age group, gender, distance, and stroke. For example, Event #15 is 9-10 Girls 25M Freestyle. All neighborhood swim meets follow the same order of events at every meet.

Ages 10 and under swim 25M events (one length of the pool), and ages 11 and over swim 50M events (two lengths of the pool). The Individual Medley is 100M long, because it consists of one lap (length of the pool) for each of the four strokes.

HEATS

Because there may be more swimmers in an event than the 6 lanes to swim in, not everyone can swim their event at the same time. Heats are groups of swimmers within each event.

Generally, the first heat is the fastest group of swimmers, and heat placement is determined by swimmers' best times. If a swimmer has not swam an event before, they will be seeded in the last heat with an NT, or "No Time."

LANES

For each event and heat, each swimmer will be assigned a lane number. Lane numbers are shown on the starting blocks. Typically, the fastest swimmers are seeded in the lanes in the middle of the pool.

AGES, TEAMS, SEED TIMES

The age of the swimmer, what team the swimmer is from, and what their seed time (or fastest time achieved before entering the meet) is will be listed to the right of each swimmer's name for identification and reference.

RELAYS

For Medley Relays (each person swims one stroke), the order shown on the heat sheet is as follows:

The Freestyle Relay is displayed in the same order as the Medley Relay. All swimmers in the Freestyle Relay swim FREESTYLE but they are put in an order of how they should swim.

Ages 10 and Under swim 100M relays (each person swims one length of the pool).

Swimmer 1 and Swimmer 3 start at the deep end of the pool on the starting blocks. Swimmer 2 and Swimmer 4 start at the shallow end of the pool in the water (no diving at the shallow end).

Ages 11 and Over swim 200M relays (each person swims two lengths of the pool).

All swimmers start at the deep end of the pool on the starting blocks.

MARKING YOUR SWIMMER 

It is a big help if parents mark their swimmer's race info on their arm/thigh with a Sharpie before the meet. This will help them to know when to be ready to swim.

1. Go through the heat sheet and every time you find your swimmer's name, highlight it. Your child may be entered in several events.

2. Make four (4) column headings - E, H, L, S. These stand for Event, Heat, Lane and Stroke. 

3. Go through the heat sheet and find your swimmer's name which you highlighted. 

4. For each event, write the event number, heat number, lane number and stroke in the corresponding column.

The asterisk that is marked on the left of numbers 27 and 67 indicates that those are relays.

Under the S (Stroke), MR stands for Medley Relay and FR stands for Freestyle Relay. Swimmers should note their stroke / order.