Welcome to the world of high school swimming and diving! Even though you may have attended USA and/or Town Recreational Team swim/dive meets, you will find high school swimming and diving is entirely different. High school meets move at a quick pace and are shorter than other swim meets you have attended. The structure of high school swimming and diving meets significantly limits the number of athletes who participate in each event in a meet. Swimming and diving at AB is a varsity-only sport so all swimmers and divers are technically on varsity. However, in order to earn a varsity letter, a swimmer/diver must score points in a meet during the season.

Swimming

Acton-Boxborough swim/dive has historically been one of the best swim/dive teams in the state. As in other sports, the coaches determine the line-up for each meet with the goal of scoring the maximum points possible and winning as many meets as possible. The season consists primarily of dual meets against one other team, but we have one invitational meet, where each swimmer on the team will get to compete against several other teams. Our season ends with the North Sectional meet a week later, the Division I State Championship. In dual meets, each team can enter three relay teams per event, which means 12 total swimmers in the event. A team can also only enter a maximum of three swimmers in the final heat of an individual event, but there is occasionally more than one heat. Each swimmer can participate in a maximum of four events, with no more than two individual events.

In order to participate at Sectionals and States, swimmers must have achieved a qualifying time (decided by the MIAA) during the regular season. However, each team can only enter one relay event and four swimmers in each individual event, so achieving a qualifying time does not guarantee that they will swim that event at championships.

Diving

Diving comprises a single event at any meet. Like swimming, only three divers per team can score in any dual meet. Any additional divers may not score points for the meet but may use their score to qualify for States and Sectionals. At Sectionals and States, each high school team can only enter a maximum of four divers who have each achieved a qualifying score at a specific number of meets (typically twice).

Event Order

Event 1: 200 Yard Medley Relay (3 teams of 4 swimmers – 2 lengths of back/breast/fly/free)

Event 2: 200 Yard Freestyle (3 swimmers – 8 lengths)

Event 3: 200 Yard Individual Medley (IM) (3 swimmers – 2 lengths of fly/back/breast/free)

Event 4: 50 Yard Freestyle (3 swimmers – 2 lengths)

Event 5: One Meter Diving (3 divers – 6 dives, 1 required and 5 optional)

Event 6: 100 Yard Butterfly (3 swimmers – 4 lengths)

Event 7: 100 Yard Freestyle (3 swimmers – 4 lengths)

Event 8: 500 Yard Freestyle (3 swimmers – 20 lengths, requires counter)

Event 9: 200 Yard Freestyle Relay (3 teams of 4 swimmers – 2 lengths each)

Event 10: 100 Yard Backstroke (3 swimmers – 4 lengths)

Event 11: 100 Yard Breaststroke (3 swimmers – 4 lengths)

Event 12: 400 Yard Freestyle Relay (3 teams of 4 swimmers – 4 lengths each)

Meet Scoring

Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
Individual	6	4	3	2	1
Relay	8	4	2	—	—