There are often two meets each week beginning in mid-June. Swim meets are run by parent/caretaker volunteers. If your swimmer is participating in a meet, then someone from your family will be expected to volunteer. Each week you will be able to sign-up for jobs when you declare your swimmer for an A meet or select events for a B meet. 

NVSL "A" meets are on Saturday mornings. Brandywine will compete against another team in the division. Swimmers can score points for their team by placing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Coaches determine which swimmers will swim which events based on swimmer availability, times, etc.  

"B" meets (FAST Developmental Meets) are on Monday nights. These meets give all swimmers a chance to compete in a meet, win ribbons, and develop their strokes. No team scores are kept. 

There is also a mid-season Division Relay Carnival and Individual Medley (IM) Carnival and a Division Individual Championship Meet at the end of the season. 

Qualified swimmers might also participate in All Stars and All Star Relays.

Availability for all swimmers must be declared each week by Tuesday at noon for the Saturday "A" meet. This information is used by the coaches to decide which swimmers are swimming which events. 

• Declaring your swimmer as "attending" means they are available to swim in the meet. It does not guarentee your swimmer will be swimming in the meet. 
• Declaring your swimmer as "not attending" means they are unable to attend the meet. 

How to declare your swimmer for the A meet:

1. Log into the Brandywine Swimtopia site (this website)
2. Go to calendar, find the A Meet, and click on “Meet Entry". 
3. At the bottom, click on EDIT. You will see the names of your swimmer(s) and whether they're marked as Attending or Not Attending. Make sure their status is correct. Then click SAVE at the bottom.

Northern Virginia Swimming League (NVSL) meets are competitive meets and swimmers are chosen by coaches to swim based on their times and on the coaches' assessment of which combination of swimmers will result in the most points for the team. In general, this is an objective process based on swimmers with the fastest times, but there is a subjective element to it as coaches determine how best to organize swimmers to maximize team points.

“A” meets are on Saturday mornings for five consecutive weeks. Swimmers qualify based primarily on their time trials and “B” meet results, so the roster may change each week due to improved times or absences. “A” meets are governed by NVSL rules. They are scored and determine standing in our division. Swimmer availability is determined by parent availability declarations before noon on Tuesday. A swimmer is allowed to swim only two individual events and two relay events at an A meet.

All Saturday meets start at 9:00 am unless otherwise announced. The home team warms up from 8:15-8:30 am, and the away team warms up from 8:30-8:45 am.

Event selection for all swimmers must be declared each week by Sunday at 2 pm for the Monday "B" meet.  

Event Eligibility

• A swimmer can't swim an event if they scored points (1st, 2nd or 3rd place) in the "A" meet the previous Saturday. 
• Each swimmer is allowed 2 races plus the Individual Medley (IM). Talk to the coaches about this if your swimmer(s) has never swam the IM before.

How to Select Events for Your Swimmer:

1. Go to Swim Meets. 
2. Click on MEET ENTRY. You should have already indicated whether or not your swimmer(s) will be at the meet. 
3. Now click EDIT.
4. Select your races. As always, coaches have final say on race selection. Sometimes coaches will want a swimmer to try out a stroke, or to get a time for the next meet.

If you can't remember exactly where you swimmer(s) placed, we'll send out a meet results sheet, and you can see your swimmer's results in Swimtopia, or (for A meets) see results on the NVSL website at mynvsl.com under Schedule/Results.

Brandywine participates in the Fairfax Area Swim Teams (FAST) “B” meets group, which arranges a set of “B” meets on Monday nights, except for the relay carnival on Thursday night.

These developmental "B" meets give each team member a chance to compete in a meet, win ribbons, and develop swimming strokes. There is no seeding for this league. No team scores are kept and times are not official NVSL times. However, these are refereed meets designed to provide competitive conditions that are similar to NVSL Saturday “A” meets. The times received at these meets as well as "A" meets are used to create Swim Ladders, which the coaches use for seeding the "A" meets.

First through sixth place ribbons and participant ribbons are awarded for each event. The assignment of competing teams is based on geographical proximity and not the relative competitiveness of the teams.

"B" meets consist of the same events in freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly as the "A" meets. Developmental meets do no not have relay events, but do include the individual medley (IM). The IM is a 100-meter event composed of 25 meters of each of the four individual strokes in the order of fly, back, breast, free.

A swimmer may only sign up for two strokes plus the individual medley. Saturday swimmers who placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in a stroke at the previous Saturday meet may not sign up to swim that stroke at the next Monday FAST Meet.

All Monday meets start at 6:00 pm unless otherwise announced.