What Events Are In High School Swimming?

While each high school organization has different facilities, swim meets sponsored by state athletic associations typically have specific events for competition. Some of the events are clearly a team competition, while others test an individual's speed and stamina. High school events may include more than swimming.

Diving

While some may automatically think of racing when it comes to swim meets, diving competition is typically a large portion of the competition. Diving is an individual or partnered effort, with dives being rated rather than timed. The type of diving competition will depend on the facilities, but a 1-meter dive is common. Divers are graded on the difficulty of the dive as well as the skill level, start position and water entry. The diver with the highest score is the winner.

Relay

Relay races are one of the ways in which swimming becomes a team effort. Relays are races that are typically longer that individual races, with one member swimming a specific length or stroke. Proper tagging and water entry are important elements in a relay. Common distances for a high school relay include 200 and 400 meters. The event will specify the type of stroke, such as 400 freestyle relay. In the medley relay, team members usually swim their strongest stroke.

Individual

Individual events make up a large portion of any swimming competition. Individual events are specified by length and stroke and then timed rather than graded. Strokes include the breaststroke, butterfly, backstroke and freestyle. Shorter lengths, like 50 to 100 meters, are proving grounds for the fastest swimmers, while longer lengths, such as 200 to 500, meters are more of an endurance test.

Scoring

The various high school athletic associations have different rules regarding the use of points to determine a team winner. Since diving is graded using a points system and racing is done through fastest time, swim meet officials may create a points system based on a swimmer's position at the end of the race. The fastest times are sometimes converted into points to add to the swim team's total.