Before many of you left for the beach last week, you may have seen a lot of videos and pics on FB and IG of kids swimming and posing with ribbons in their swim caps.
I have no idea why, but ever since our family has been involved in swimming, the season-ending “City Meet” has fallen on the weekend that many Midland’s residents cruise to their South Carolina beach of choice. This year the dates were June 28 & 29, 2025.
City Meet is like a big year-end tournament, whereby all of the neighborhoods and clubs meet at the USC Natatorium and duke it out. The two-day weekend event is organized by age groups. Some of the races have 6 or 7 heats, and some have more than 10, depending on the popularity of the stroke. If you think of it, for example, the 11-12 freestyle may have had 15 heats of 10 girls/heat for that one stroke.
This all said, the Jones twins are pretty fast, and what seems to be organized chaos to the parents and fans in the stands, the event is a well-oiled machine.
I’m stunned at how much work and coordination that goes into a swim meet/season: Multiple coaches organizing swimmers, 10-12 timers depending on how many lanes a pool has, starters on the mic, stroke & turn officials, head referees, ribbon passer outers, and on and on.
The image above is a snapshot of the top 14 teams that competed this year at City Meet. It’s never a perfect gauge of which team has the fastest swimmers because so many families are at the beach. That said, it’s what happened on that weekend… and that’s that.
Whether or not you’re involved in a swim team, I thought some of you may enjoy seeing where your neighborhood and/or club ranked this year. Please notice that the geographic area is quite expansive, with teams competing from Newberry to Kershaw and everywhere in between!
If you or anyone you know would like to know more about the Columbia Swim League, give me a shout and I can share what I know!
Thank you!
Franklin Jones
Speak Your Mind