Dunn Loring Dolphins

Each week swimmers have an opportunity to participate in a Monday Developmental Meet. Swimmers may also be invited to participate in a Saturday NVSL Meet. For planning purposes, and swimmer selection for Saturday NVSL Meets, we ask that parents declare whether their swimmer(s) is available for each meet. 

In addition to the Monday Developmental meets, and Saturday NVSL meets, there are additional events throughout the season including Time Trials, Divisional Relays, All Star Relays, Divisionals, and Individual All Stars.  

Here is a brief description of each of these meets:

Time Trials (Intrasquad Meet) 

The Time Trial is a mock meet and is scheduled the Saturday prior to the first meets of the season. Only our team participates, but the meet is run according like a "regular" meet. It allows children, an opportunity to experience meet conditions such as listening for instructions of the referee and starter, and practicing racing starts. 

In addition, this is a great opportunity for parents to learn what a meet is like and to learn or hone their skills at officiating a real meet. First-time parents are encouraged to work as timers at the Time Trials so that they too can become accustomed to meet rules and protocols.

Unlike all other meets of the year, during Time Trials swimmers can compete in each of the four competitive strokes (Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Fly) to get an official time. This is an important meet as it lets each swimmer establish a benchmark from which to set personal goals for the summer, provides our coaches with important data to help build practices and establishes our initial list of swimmers and times (often referred to as the “ladder”) needed to seed the Saturday NVSL meets. Parents should sign their swimmer(s) up for any event that they think the swimmer is able to swim legally. The Coaches can help answer questions as to whether a swimmer is ready to swim a particular stroke. 

Monday Developmental Meet

The Vienna area pools (Dunn Loring, Cardinal Hill, Vienna Aquatic, Shouse Village, Vienna Woods, Lakevale, and Hunter Mill) have joined together to conduct un-scored swim meets on Monday nights. The idea is to provide a fun meet environment that the whole team can participate in. 

Each Monday during the season (excluding holidays) swimmers have an opportunity to participate in this meet. Each swimmer may swim up to two events. IM (Individual Medley) counts as one stroke. Coaches will work with swimmers to identify strokes each swimmer is ready to swim and will help with weekly stroke selection. Parents should then register swimmers for the meet and specific events by the Saturday midnight deadline. Swimmers will receive place ribbons (1st through 6th) and competitor ribbons for participating. Times are printed on the back of the ribbons. 

Swimmers that participated in the NVSL Saturday Meet must MUST select strokes that are DIFFERENT from what was swam in the Saturday meet. If your swimmer placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in the Saturday meet, they will not be eligible for a place ribbon at the Monday Meet, but their times will be counted.

Saturday NVSL Meet 

Dunn Loring is part of the Northern Virginia Swimming League (NVSL), which was founded in 1956, by 8 Northern Virginia Pools founded the NVSL. Today the NVSL is the largest summer swim team league in the United States with over 100 participating teams. The league is organized into 18 Divisions, with five or six teams per division (fastest teams are placed in Divisions 1-4). 

The teams within the division swim against each other, one at a time on five consecutive Saturdays, in a series of Dual Meets. Based upon results of these  meets, a division champion will be named. These meets are also referred to as the Saturday NVSL meets. 

Dunn Loring is in Division 6 for the 2024 swim season.  

Coaches select three swimmers per event to swim in the Saturday NVSL Meets, and each swimmer is limited to swimming only two individual events (plus relays). In putting together the roster for each Saturday NVSL meet, the Coaches consider the swimmers available to swim in the meet and generally make selections based on the swimmers with the top times for each event as well as the anticipated line-up of the other team.

These meets consist of 40 Individual events and 12 relays. The events swum for each stroke and age group are shown below. Remember, each pool length is 25 meters.

Saturday Meet Events and Distances

Who Swims in these Saturday NVSL Meets? Saturday NVSL meets are to see who can score the most points, so generally the fastest swimmers get to swim. Three swimmers can be entered in each individual event and no swimmer can swim more than two individual events. Since swimmers take vacations and go places such as sleepaway camp, and a swimmer can swim only two events (plus relays) in any meet, you don't necessarily have to be one of the three fastest swimmers to be invited to swim in a Saturday meet. Who swims an event may seem to be a mystery. However, after the first meet both teams know the other's swimmers' times and we try to position our swimmers to optimize our points and win.

Seeding In Saturday NVSL meets, the home team has lanes 1, 3, and 5 while the visiting team has lanes 2, 4, and 6. The fastest swimmers swim in lanes 3 and 4, the next fastest in lanes 1 and 2, and the next fastest in lanes 5 and 6. Swimmers are seeded based upon their fastest times attained in prior competition. Lane 1 is always on the right side as you stand facing the pool at the starting end.

Meet Sheets While all NVSL meets have an announcer, the best way to follow the meet is the meet sheet, which lists all the events and swimmers. Meet Sheets are generally emailed out the Friday evening prior to the meet.

Scoring In the individual events, a first place finish earns 5 points for the team, a second place 3 points and a third place finish 1 point. Relays are scored as 5 points for the winner and 0 points for the loser. There are 402 points up for grabs in a Saturday meet. Unless there is one or more places not awarded in and event due to DQs or lack of swimmers, you need 202 points to win.

In the event of a tie in an individual event, the points for the places involved are squally split among the swimmers, For example, a two-way tie for second place, each swimmer earns 2 points (3 points for second plus 1 point for third equals 4 points, half for each swimmer). No third place would be awarded because the next swimmer is fourth. For a third place tie, each swimmer is awarded a half point.

Lollipop Meet (for 8&Unders Only)

This meet is hosted by Hunter Mill and is for 8 & Under swimmers only. Our Vienna area Developmental teams all send their interested 8 & Under swimmers for this event, and it's completely run by kids! Older swimmers act as timers, and at the end of their races, each swimmer receives a lollipop. Swimmers can participate in a total of 3 events: 25m Freestyle, 25m Backstroke, and a Freestyle relay (4x25m). During this meet, coaches are permitted to be in the water to offer some support and assistance for those swimmers who may need extra help finishing their race.  If an 8 & Under has participated in an NVSL meet they would not be eligible for this meet. 

NVSL Divisional Relays 

This an NVSL event which takes place on the Wednesday between the third and fourth weeks of the season. All six teams from the same division converge on one pool for an evening of relay races. These include both Freestyle relays (each swimmer swims the Freestyle) and medley relays (each swimmer swims a different stroke).

At Divisional Relays each of the teams in our division put forth two relays (freestyle and medley) for the boys and girls in each age group. The Coaches select relay teams based on a number of factors, including individual event times, split times, comfort with different strokes and practice/meet performance. Like all NVSL meets, it is essential for the Coaches and team reps to know who is available for this meet when putting together the relay team entries.

In Relay carnivals, teams are not seeded. Each team's lane assignment for the first event is based upon luck of the draw and the teams then rotate one lane to the left after each event. The meet sheet lists only the team swimming in each lane in each event (except for All Star Relay Carnival).

All Star Relays:

The night after the event, all the Division coordinators meet and relay teams are selected to swim at the All-Star Rely Carnival the following week. The sole criteria for selection to the All-Star Relay Carnival is to have one of the eighteen fastest times in events swum in the Division Relay Carnivals.

Divisionals 

The sixth and final week of the season, each Division has an Individual Championship meet, commonly referred to as Divisionals. Each team is allowed to enter two swimmers per age group, gender and event. The last week of the season swimmers fill out a Divisional selection form and the top swimmers in each event based on the best times of the season get the right of first refusal to participate.  This is an individual meet and is not scored. No swimmer is allowed to swim more than two events at Divisionals.

Individual All Stars:

After Divisionals, all Division coordinators meet to select swimmers for the All-Stars meet the following week.The sole criteria for selection to All-Stars is to have one of the eighteen fastest times swum that day in an event in the Divisional meets.All Stars can be overwhelming for the first time swimmer as approximately 600 swimmers plus parents, coaches and officials converge on a pool for a meet that takes about six hours. If your swimmer is fast enough to be named an All Star, it is a thrill they will never forget.