Great Falls Swim and Tennis Rapids

At the end of every season, the 6 teams in our division get together for "Individual Divisionals." 

Divisionals work a little differently than other meets.  Here are the guidelines

• The Rapids can send 2 swimmers per Gender/Age Group per stroke
• All 4 strokes + the IM are swum in 2 sessions, morning and afternoon.
• No swimmer can swim more than twice at divisionals.  That includes the IM.  2 times in the water and that's it.  
• The order of the events rotates, and will be communicated the week of divisionals.
• The swimmers for The Rapids are selected by Ladder Order by the swimmers themselves.  The higher a swimmer is on the ladder, the more choices they have.  Coaches and Team Reps do not make selections.  The Swimmers do.  
• The process to determine who swims in Divisionals is as follows:
  • Families will mark their swimmer as "Attending" Divisionals in Swimtopia. In the notes section they will list what strokes their swimmer prefers to swim IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE. For example "Free, IM, Breast, Back". This must be completed within an hour of the end of the Intersquad Meet.
  • After the Intrasquad meet a final ladder is produced.
  • The Team Reps will then compare swimmer requests with the ladder, starting at the top.
  • Swimmers at the top of the ladder in multiple strokes will get their top 2 picks, and then be removed from the list of possible swimmers in the other strokes.
  • For the Rapids, it is very possible for swimmers who are 3rd or 4th on a stroke in the ladder to get invited to Divisionals if the top 2 positions on the ladder swim other strokes. 
  • The Individual Medley is a great way to get invited to Divisionals.  If the swimmers at the top of the ladder choose to swim individual strokes, the IM might be open to other swimmers.   
  • There are some alternates for Divisionals.  If a swimmer is close but doesn't make the final selection, a Team Rep will contact them to let ask if they would like to be considered as an Alternate. Alternates are used to fill open lanes when teams don't have 2 swimmers. The spots are assigned based on fastest times across the whole Division.
  • The Team Reps will go to the "Divisional Seeding Meeting" the Wednesday before Divisionals which is when the meet is finalized, and alternates will be notified after the seeding meeting if they are invited to swim.
  • Important: Once a swimmer has chosen their events, they cannot change them. For example, if a swimmer is at the top of Free, Back, Fly and IM, initially selects Fly and IM, they can't think better of it and switch to Free and Back.  Because the rest of the selections will have been made by other swimmers.  So, if you have a swimmer who will have options, they should think about what they want to swim BEFORE the Intrasquad meet.  
• If a swimmer it at the top of the ladder and has not marked themselves as "Attending" and listed their stroke preferences in Swimtopia by an hour after Intersquad the Team Reps will assume they are NOT swimming at Divisionals. 
• Please do not crowd the table while we are putting together the final ladder. We will send it out via email as soon as it's ready. 

If you have questions about the process, please email [email protected]