An exciting meet is on the horizon for Illinois high school boys’ swimming next season. The eight most successful programs over the past two decades will compete in a knockout-style dual meet on December 30 at 4 p.m., with the location to be announced.
New Trier, Hinsdale Central, Glenbrook South, Neuqua Valley, Naperville Central, Lyons Township, Stevenson, and St. Charles North will participate. Combined, these teams have captured 19 of the last 20 state titles. See their top three finishes since 2005 below.
A 400 medley relay (8×50 with 2 backstroke, 2 breaststroke, 2 butterfly, 2 freestyle) will occur before the dual meets begin and will determine seeding for the tournament, with 1st place receiving the 1st seed, 2nd place the 2nd seed, and so on. This relay will also serve as a tiebreaker – if two teams tie at the conclusion of a dual meet, the team with the better seed wins the dual meet. Only the top 4 teams in this relay can be the overall Illinois Dual Meet Champion.
Special rule for the 400 medley relay only: A team will be assessed a 1 second penalty if there is a false start in the 400 Medley Relay. If anyone leaves over a half second early, then they get a DQ and finish last. This prevents a strong team from getting a low seed over a slight false start. The preference is to have no false starts in this event! Also, one second penalty per other DQ. Any blatant cheating would result in 8th seed (for integrity of the meet).
Each team will then start by swimming a head-to-head dual meet against another team. All dual meets will run simultaneously with just four heats of each event, and all events are 100 yards and shorter, besides the relays. Each team will have two dual meets as each bracket will have 4 teams.
A swimmer can do a maximum of 2 individuals and 3 total events per dual meet. A swimmer can do 3 events per dual meet matchup, so they could essentially swim a maximum of 7 events if they are included in the 400 medley relay.
Higher team seeds in lanes 2, 4, 8. Lower team seeds in lanes 1, 5, 7.
Dual Meet Round #1
- 5 Team Seed vs. 8 Team Seed (Will swim in heat one of each event)
- 6 Team Seed vs. 7 Team Seed (Will swim in heat two of each event)
- 1 Team Seed vs. 4 Team Seed (Will swim in heat three of each event)
- 2 Team Seed vs. 3 Team Seed (Will swim in heat four of each event)
Dual Meet Round #2
- Heat 1:
- Loser of 5 vs 8 and Loser of 6 vs. 7 (Winner is 7th Place)
- Heat 2:
- Winner of 5 vs 8 and Winner of 6 vs. 7 (Winner is 5th Place and Bracket Champion)
- Heat 3:
- Loser of 1 vs 4 and Loser of 2 vs. 3 (Winner is 3rd Place)
- Heat 4:
- Winner of 1 vs 4 and Winner of 2 vs. 3 (Winner is Overall Champion)
Modified Order of Events
- 200 Medley Relay – 3 entries (6 total points available to win, 2 points per matchup 4vs5, 1vs 2, 7vs8)
- 100 Freestyle – 3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 100 IM – 3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 100 Butterfly – 3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 100 Backstroke – 3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 100 Breaststroke – 3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 200 Freestyle Relay – 3 entries (6 total points available to win, 2 points per matchup 4vs5, 1vs 2, 7vs8)
Lane Assignments
- Lanes 4 and 5 are the one seed for each team (This is a head to head matchup for one point)
- Lanes 1 and 2 are the two seeds for each team (This is a head to head matchup for one point)
- Lanes 7 and 8 are the three seeds for each team (This is a head to head matchup for one point)
- Lane 3 and 6 will NOT be used for the entire meet
- Each team gets one point for each seed that wins head to head. Relays would count for 2 points per win at each seed.
Bracket Visual
Making dual meets more fun has been a major topic in the sport over the past several years, and this innovation for next season could inspire others moving forward. Texas and Virginia have been at the forefront of this effort for the past few seasons on the collegiate scene, but nothing of this scale has been tried at the high school level.
On the first day of their November 2022 dual meet with Virginia, Texas experimented with a new format by scoring the men’s and women’s competitions together, rather than separately as is typical. Bevo, the University of Texas’s official live Longhorn mascot, was present at the Lee and Joe Jamail Center that day. The meet also featured music, a DJ, a light show, and ISL-style swimmer introductions before the races. The 100 IM and mixed 400 freestyle relay, events not usually included in NCAA competition outside of intrasquad meets, were also swum on Friday. The Longhorns have since incorporated elements of this format into two of their meets each season.
At the UVA–Texas dual meet in October 2023, Virginia introduced two unconventional concepts: “super finals” and “winner-takes-all” events. Super finals took place after the regular heats of the 100 back, 100 breast, and 100 fly, with each team selecting one swimmer—who did not compete in the standard 4 vs. 4 heat—to race head-to-head. The winner earned five points, while the loser received none. The University of Tennessee also incorporated the super final format into its annual invitational this past November.
On April 18, Georgia Tech announced a knockout-style dual meet tournament that will take place October 17-18, and Neuqua Valley head coach Chad Allen told SwimSwam that this was a big inspiration to give this event a try.
Love it. I get the need to condense time given the format, but I feel they should have a 200 or 500 free so it’s not all about the sprinters. And maybe change 100 IM to 200 IM.
Would like to see Carmel there as well. Maybe Kyle Sockwell announcing?!
This meet is for Illinois High School teams, not Indiana teams. Kyle would be a great addition!
Let’s go Neuqua! This reminds me over what the older Evanston and New Trier invites were like
This is exactly what swimming needs…. There should be a ‘March Madness’ type tournament for the top 8 teams in D1. (And separate tournaments for D2 and D3)…. Would be easier for casual fans to follow and actually highlight the TEAM component
Sorry anyone who swims 200+ I guess
Finals should be at Evanston, best duel meet venue in world
Although Evanston is iconic, it’s horrible to swim in these days with so many newer and nicer pools in the Chicago suburbs/
Hahaha IYKYK. Thank you FMC for getting the state meet out of there!
I’ll always love that pool but the fact that ETHS isn’t in this group of 8 despite having a great coach suggests that it’s time for Evanston to build a modern facility.
Would have loved to be apart of this back when I was in high school a few years back but glad this is finally happening.
Love this!