Hi Parents - 

It is so hard to believe that the 2022 swim season is more than halfway through and we are talking about Championships now! Please read carefully as GASL’s championships are completely different from anything we’ve done before. It's another long email (sorry)!

Championship Meet Background

GASL has 3 championship meets (Gold, Silver and Bronze) on an INDIVIDUAL basis, unlike CMSL’s divisional meet for the team and the qualifying Straehle Invitational meet. In order to participate in a GASL Championship meet, a swimmer must participate in at least 2 regular schedule dual meets during the summer season. We are determining if the all-relay meet we had in June will count as a "dual meet" for championship purposes. Swimmers can swim 3 Qualified Individual Events and 1 Relay or 2 Qualified Individual Events and 2 Relays in one of the three meets. Each swimmer can only participate in 1 of the championship meets.

All entries are due to the league by 1pm on July 17. Therefore, we need all parents to declare which meet their swimmer will participate in NLT immediately following the away meet next week at South River Colony (read – by 3pm on July 16). If your swimmer qualifies for a Silver or Gold event at SRC, you should make your changes as soon as possible. Feel free to make your declarations (after you read this entire email).

If your swimmer is not signed up for a championship meet, by 3pm July 16, they will not be swimming in the meets. If your swimmer is signed up for multiple meets, your swimmer will swim in the first meet on the schedule chronologically (as in, if you signed up for both Bronze and Gold meets, your swimmer will swim qualified events in the Bronze meet). Additionally, there is a $2 charge per event that Southdown Swim Team will be covering. If your swimmer(s) are signed up for a meet/event and do not show, you’ll need to reimburse the team.

Coach Nastya will enter in events for the meets, per normal. To let her know which events your swimmer wants to swim, please fill out this survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HJM8GHM

Championship Meet Details

The BRONZE meet will take place on Wednesday, July 20 at South River Colony (40 Colony Crossing, Edgewater, MD 21037) starting at 5:30pm. Any swimmer who has not earned a Silver or Gold qualifying time in an event is eligible to swim those events. This meet is geared towards the newer/developing swimmers and, because the faster swimmers are at the SILVER/GOLD meets, these swimmers will have a better chance of placing higher than usual. If your swimmer wants to participate in the BRONZE meet and swim events they do not have qualifying times for in the other meets, select “2022 Bronze Meet-SRC” on the Signup Calendar page and state “Attending this Meet.”

The SILVER meet will take place on Saturday, July 23 at Hillsmere (100 Phipps Lane, Annapolis, MD) starting at 8:30am. The list of current qualifiers is attached and is expected to change after our next 2 dual meets. If your swimmer wants to participate in the SILVER meet and has the qualifying times, select “2022 Silver Meet-HILLS” on the Signup Calendar page and state “Attending this Meet”.

The GOLD meet will take place on Sunday, July 24 at Indian Landing Boat Club (930 Indian Landing Rd, Millersville, MD) starting at 8:30am. The list of current qualifiers is attached and is expected to change after our next 2 dual meets. If your swimmer wants to participate in the GOLD meet and has the qualifying times, select “2022 Gold Meet” on the Signup Calendar page and state “Attending this Meet.”

As an example, a swimmer has a BRONZE time in Breast, SILVER times in IM and Back and GOLD times in Free and Fly. They can choose: 1) BRONZE and swim only breast; 2) SILVER and swim back and IM; or 3) GOLD and swim free and fly.

Championship Meet Volunteers

Yes, parents are still needed to volunteer at these meets. Fortunately, there are plenty of teams, so we only need to provide a few volunteers for each of the meets. BUT, like all swimmers, my swimmer (Andrew) will only be attending 1 of the championship meets, so I’ll need a “head parent” to manage parent volunteers and be the liaison at the 2 meets I will not be attending.

• Officials: Officials will hear directly from GASL Officials team soon about signing up for a meet. GASL is responsible for staffing all championship meets with officials.
• Volunteers: Volunteers is proportional to the number of athletes each team brings (per rules the volunteer assignments are reduced for each official provided). These assignments are distributed at the seed meeting once the host team has entries to fairly distribute the workload.

As always, please reach out for questions. This is all new to me, too, so if I do not know something, I’ll get the information as soon as I can. Coach Nastya grew up swimming in GASL, so she’s a great resource for championship knowledge and the Ulrich family came to us from Mayo Swim Team a few years ago, so they are also familiar with these logistics.

Thank you!

Michelle

PS – Upcoming Events

The camp out portion of the movie night is cancelled, but Movie Night will be on Sunday July 17 and open to friends, family, and Southdown Pool members. See https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0845ACAB2FA3FA7-swim7 for more details.

Team Awards BBQ is on Sunday July 24 starting at 5pm at the pool. Hotdogs, hamburgers and paper goods will be provided, and other dishes will be potluck with appetizers, side dishes and desserts based on last names. More details will be sent later.

Still looking for "Lead Volunteers" for next swim season (see: Lead Volunteer Positions - Southdown Swim Team (swimtopia.com)). Let me know if you're interested. The team will not run next year without these positions being filled.