Dual Meet Scoring

Here is how a dual meet is run and scored. To start each event, swimmers are called to their lanes by the referee with a long whistle. The start in Freestyle, Breaststroke, Butterfly and Individual Medley races shall be with a dive, so at the sound of the long whistle, the swimmers shall step onto the starting blocks and remain there. The start in Backstroke and Medley Relay races shall be from the water, so at the sound of the long whistle, the swimmers will enter the water. Once the referee visually checks that all swimmers are present, a second referee (the starter) will announce "Take your marks" at which point swimmers will take their starting position. They must have at least one foot at the front of the starting platform if they are on the blocks. If they're in the water, both hands must be on the starting grips or gutter, and both feet should be against the wall. Once all swimmers are stationary in their starting positions, the starter will blow the whistle again to start the race. If the referee feels that one of the swimmers has moved, left early or achieved an unfair advantage, the guilty swimmer may be disqualified after the race for a false start. Should a swimmer inadvertently enter the water before the starting signal, they may be disqualified at the discretion of the officials.

Scoring is for the team, with points awarded by finish place in each event based on the following point value system.

Based on this point value system, each individual event has 16 available points and each relay event has 14, but there is a limit on how many points each team can earn per event.

• For individual events, a team can earn a maximum of 13 points since each team can only enter up to 3 swimmers per event.

• For relay events, no team may score more than two (2) places in a relay event, even though a team can have 3 relay entries. The maximum points a team can earn is 12, no matter how many places won. Basically, even if the other team does not finish in the top 3 places, they will automatically pick up 2 points as long as their relay teams are not disqualified.

Varsity swimmers compete across 8 individual events and 3 relay events, while JV swim the 50 Freestyle. If the pool allows for a diving event, points from the diving event are added to the points from the Varsity swimming events to determine the total Varsity team score. As in the individual swimming events, the diving event earns points based on the placement of the top 5 divers. Each diver performs 6 dives, which are scored individually by two judges. Each dive receives a score that consists of the combined scores of the two judges divided by the degree of difficulty associated with the dive. The final score for each diver is the total of the scores received for each of their 6 dives. The diver’s final score determines his/her placement for the overall diving event and as a result the points they actually earn for their Varsity team.

The team can accrue a maximum of 140 points out of 170, or 153 out of 186 (if there is a diving event). Diving results can determine the outcome of the meet, so it is important for the swimmers and their parents to support the divers, too.

Since the scoring is based on the overall team’s effort and their finish placement in each event, a team benefits greatly from having depth in their team, i.e. multiple swimmers that can place consistently at least in 2 or 3 of the top 4 standings in each individual event, and can place in 1 or 2 of the top 3 finishes for their relay events. Having star swimmers that can consistently come in first is great but, based on meet rules, they can only swim a maximum of two individual events, so other strong swimmers are needed to ensure the team scores well in each meet event. Since meets are won or lost based on total points, coaches are constantly strategizing to figure out how to take advantage of each swimmer’s skill and deciding what events to enter each swimmer so the team can get the most points in each event. This is one of the reasons why coaches will not post the list of swimmers and which events they will swim until warm-ups before the start of a meet.

Be aware that only a few schools have scoreboards in their pool areas that display the current score. Meet officials will usually announce the final score for each team at the end of the meet. Ties do occur.

If you are interested in keeping score yourself you can download a PDF score sheet to print and bring with you or an Excel sheet that you can use on a Smartphone or PDA. Both are available below.

• Masco Swim Score Spreadsheet - Use on Smart Phone, laptop or PDA for running totals

• Masco Swim Score Sheet - Print it out and calculate scores manually

NOTE: Most of the above information as well as the Masco Score Spreadsheet and PDF files were extracted and revised from the Roxbury High School Swim Team Website: http://www.hometeamsonline.com/teams/default.asp?u=ROXBURYHIGHSCHOOLSWIMTEAM&s=htosports&p=custom&pagename=High+School+Swimming+101