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Entering your first competition
Congratulations! You have taken the first step from swimming for recreation or fun, to swimming competitively. Racing in swimming means so much more than coming first, second or third – it’s a chance to swim your best time and achieve a new Personal Best (PB)! It’s a chance to see how much you have improved thanks to all your hard effort in the pool. At times getting a new PB will be easy, and other times you will be fighting for those valuable fractions of a second.
While you are new to competing, it’s important to pick the right swimming competition for you. There are a few different types – please speak to your coach to ensure you are choosing the right events for you.
Pool Size
Each meet will display if it is a Short Course (SC) or Long Course (LC) Meet.
This represents the size of the pool the swimmers compete in.
Short Course = 25 metre pool
Long course = 50 metre pool
Club Nights
These events occur around once a month; this is a chance to try new event and strokes. They are run on Friday nights and are centred around trying something different and fun! Club Nights are the perfect events to try your first competition.
Club Championships
This is LSC’s in-house swimming competition where we challenge each other to see who can be crowned the Age Champion! This event is open to Lilydale swimmers only; it’s a great place to start for many of our budding swimmers!
Encouragement Swim Meets
These events are run by swimming clubs around Victoria to help encourage young swimmers into the sport – there’s often a chance to win medals and prizes. LSC runs its own Encouragement Meet each year during August.
Encouragement Meets are open to most swimmers, excluding State Medallists or State Qualifiers in some cases.
Qualifying Swim Meets
These events are run so swimmers can achieve Qualifying Times for the Victorian State Championships, Swimmers in these events are looking to swim their best times so they can represent LSC at the highest levels. The competition here can be slightly tougher, but it’s a great chance to race swimmers with similar abilities.
Swim times from these Meets are eligible for State Qualification and Australian Junior Excellence Program.
State Championships
These are the Premier events held each year, where swimmers battle against the best swimmers in the State to compete for Personal Bests and top 10 achievements! For this year’s State Qualifying times please see State Qualifying Times page.
There are several State Championships held each year in Victoria. They include:
The Victorian Age Short Course Championships (September)
This event is open to swimmers aged 13-18 with current Short Course Qualifying Times.
The Victorian Open Short Course Championships (September)
This event is open to swimmers aged 13 and over with current Short Course Open Qualifying Times.
The Metro Optus Junior Dolphins Meet (November)
This event is open to swimmers aged 8-12 years old, in preparation for higher levels of competition.
The Victorian Age Long Course Championships (December)
This event is open to swimmers aged 13-18 with current Long Course Qualifying Times.
The Victorian Sprint Championships (January)
This event is open to swimmers aged 13 and over who have achieved a Long Course 50m qualifying time in any stroke.
The Victorian Open Long Course Championships (February)
This event is open to swimmers aged 13 and over with current Long Course Open Qualifying Times.
The Victorian Metro Long Course Championships (March)
This is a new event which will allow Metro Districts to battle against each other – more information to follow as it becomes available.
The Metro All Juniors Competition (March)
This event is now open to swimmers aged 8-16 years old.
The Victorian Relay Competition (May)
This is another new event, allowing Clubs to form relay teams to compete at State level. More information to follow as it becomes available.
Open Water Competitions
Lilydale Swimming Club has a strong background in open water swimming; this can be a fun and new way to compete. Swimmers race in long distance events that take place in lakes or the ocean. It’s a great day down at the beach and if you are lucky, you might even see your coaches competing!
Results
Looking for your results for a particular race? Competition results are logged with Swimming Australia and can be referenced via the following link …
Swimming Victoria and Swimming Australia
Swimming Victoria is the main swimming body in our state and our national organization is Swimming Australia. When you join a swimming club, you are required to join them as well. Not only does this provide Insurance for our swimmers, membership also gives you access to a range of resources and discounts. The websites vic.swimming.org.au and www.swimming.org.au contain a wealth of information for parents and swimmers at all stages of their swimming.
The Swimming Victoria website is the go to place for all Swimming Meets being run in the state. These are listed on the competitions calendar. You can also find out information about State Qualifying times here.
The Swimming Australia website has a results page where all swimmers’ results from any Qualifying Meets are displayed. It also has information about the Junior Excellence (JX) program – see below.
Australian Junior Excellence Program 
The Australian Junior Excellence Program (JX) recognizes, encourages and rewards junior swimmers who, through their development of aquatic skills and fitness, achieve a high standard of swimming excellence.
Swimmers aged from 9 to 16 years, who accomplish times set by Swimming Australia, qualify at Gold, Silver, Bronze or Green standard, depending on their best performance/s during the season.
For doing so, qualifiers receive special recognition by way of publication of their name on the website, a certificate, and a chance to participate in special mentored coaching sessions!
This is in no way linked with our JX squad.
Competition Recognition
Lilydale Swimming Club is run to cater for all swimmers, however we do like to award our high achieving athletes with certain rewards.
State Qualifying Time
When swimmers achieve their first State Qualifying Time, they will be rewarded with 2 Lilydale Swimming Club State Caps. These have an alternative colour scheme to our standard caps and are designed to stand out.
These will be presented to the swimmer once they have qualified for and entered into an individual event at the Victorian State Championships (Sprints, Long Course or Short Course Meets), which are run throughout the year.