Conference Details

"Great things never came from comfort zones."

Neil Strauss

"When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things. "

Joe Namath

 

Conference week is upon us. There are lots and lots of details regarding the diving and swimming portions of this meet. Please read carefully. If you have any questions regarding this please connect with Coach Lisa (swimming) or Coach Diane (diving). We are happy to answer any question or address any concern.

What is Conference? For those of you who are new to the swim world our conference meet is the finale of our season. Unlike the rest of our season this meet includes 8 different teams, is scored by top 16 and has awards given to top 8 finishers. (details on all this below) It is a fun way to finish our season and is a great opportunity to give the girls some great races with kids that swim around the same time as they do as each event is ‘seeded’ (aka organized) by time.

Who Participates? All swimmers will be participating in our conference meet and divers who have 8 dives in their dive list will compete Friday evening. Please plan accordingly.

CONFERENCE MEET DETAILS:

TEAMS COMPETING: Byron Center, Hamilton, Holland, Holland Christian, Jenison, Northview, Spring Lake, Wayland

DIVING:

• Day/Time: Friday, December 14 @ 5:30 pm
• Warm ups start at 3:30 pm 
•  Stands open at 5:00 pm 

• Host:  Hamilton Swimming and Diving

Hamilton Middle School  

4845 136 th Ave.  

Hamilton, MI 49419

• Transportation: Athletes will need to be brought to the pool by parents. They should be on deck and ready to go at 3:20. 
• Please Remember: 
• Snacks & Water (no glass is permitted on deck)
• Plenty of towels
• Something quiet to do between dives (music w/ headphones, coloring books, doodle stuff, etc.

• Rules for the Diving Conference: The meet will be run as an eight dive meet. A preliminary round where the divers complete five dives will be performed. At this time a cut will be made down to the top 16 divers who have a legal dive list. The top 16 divers will advance to the final round where they will complete their final 3 dives for final place. Any diver with a ‘legal’ eight dive list will be allowed to complete their final 3 dives.

• Scoring and Awards: 
• The Conference Championship meet will be scored to sixteen (16) places for diving. 
• Awards will be presented to the top 8 divers.

•  One Last note: Previously in the season we mentioned we would like our divers to attend our swim portion of the conference meet. However, due to very limited space at Spring Lake this will not be required this season. 

SWIMMING:

• Day/Time: Saturday, December 15 @ 10:30 am  
• Host: Spring Lake Middle School

 Spring Lake High School Aquatic Center

 16140 148^th Ave

Spring Lake, MI

• Transportation:  All athletes will be bussed to Spring Lake 
• HCMS/PR – 7:30 am bus LEAVES Middle School
• ZCS/RP – 7:40/7:45am Pick up at the Outlet Mall parking lot by Carters
• We will have a 12 passenger van to bring athletes back to Holland after the meet if need be. Please email Coach Lisa if your daughter will need a ride home. First come first serve! 

• Please Remember:

• Suits/Caps/Goggles. Please wear your team suit and team cap. As of late there have been lots of girl who have not had their team cap. Please be sure this gets packed!  With lots of teams and no assigned lanes (Heats are seeded by time not lanes like duel meets) it is very helpful for coaches and parents if all our athletes are wearing the same cap. Also bring shirt/sweatshirt, pants/shorts, shoes/flip-flops/crocs to wear on deck. With a long meet like this it is important to stay warm between swims.

• Tech Suits: If your daughter has a tech suit she would like to wear she may do so. Please do not go and purchase a tech suit if she does not have one already. This is more of a fun meet than anything else and not worth spending the money for.
•  Snacks/Water: It will be a long day so please send a lots of snacks to eat throughout the day. Also bring a water bottle or other sports beverages to stay hydrated. 
• We are still waiting to hear if bag chairs will be allowed on deck. We will send out an email once we know. 

• Scoring: The Conference Championship meet will be scored to sixteen (16) places for individual events and only “A” relays will score.  
•  Individual Points: 1^st = 20pts, 2^nd = 17pts, 3^rd = 16pts, 4^th = 15pts, 5^th = 14pts, 6^th = 13pts, 7^th = 12pts, 8^th = 11pts, 9^th = 9pts, 10^th = 7pts, 11^th = 6pts, 12^th = 5pts, 13^th = 4pts, 14^th = 3pts, 15^th = 2pts, 16^th = 1pt * Only top 3 swimmers from each team will score per event 
• Relay Points: 1^st = 40pts, 2^nd = 34 pts, 3^rd = 32 pts, 4^th = 30pts, 5^th = 28 pts, 6^th = 26 pts, 7^th = 24 pts  *Only A Relays will score points.

• Awards: The top eight (8) over all individual finishers and the top three (3) over all relay teams will receive medals. Awards will be presented after the last heat of the following event (ie. Event #1 will be awarded after the final heat of event #2).* More information on awards will be given to the girls at the meet.

• Important Parent Information: Space is TIGHT. There will be approximately 320 athletes with just as many and probably more spectators. If you want to get good seating it is important to arrive early. Stands will open at 9:00 am but knowing swim parents there will already be a line well before then. :)  (You’re a special breed and we could not love you more) 
• Entrance Fee:  Adults $3, K-12 $2, passes accepted. At this time I do not see any information regarding concessions for spectators. I will connect with Spring Lake about this and keep you all posted. 

• Entries: Because of the way conference is set up we are only able to swim two relays (8 girls) for both the medley and 200 free relay (total of 16 girls). This means that there will be athletes who only swim one event. Normally it would be required for all athletes to stay for the entire meet regardless of how many events they were swimming. However, because of the space issues we are facing at Spring Lake we will allow swimmers who swim only events BEFORE the 15 minute break to leave with parents during this break. Athletes who have events after the 15 minute break are required to stay until the meet is finished. Please note this is not the president we want to set for the future but feel it is best due to the location and space issues. Order of events are listed below:
  
• 200 Medley Relay
• 200 Freestyle 
• 100 IM
• 50 Freestyle
• 15 Minute Break
• 50 Butterfly
• 100 Freestlye
• 100 Backstroke
• 100 Breaststroke
• 200 Free Relay