Preview: 2025 Illinois High School Dual Swim Meet Tournament

Courtesy: Parker Ament

2025 Illinois High School Dual Swim Meet Tournament

• Tuesday, December 30, 2025
• Hosted by: Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois
• Start Time: 4:00 PM
• SCY (25 yards)
• Teams: Glenbrook South,Hinsdale Central, Lyons, Naperville Central, Neuqua Valley, New Trier, St. Charles North, Stevenson
• Live Stream
• Dual Meet Bracket

Next week, one of the most anticipated high school meet tournaments of the year will close out 2025. On December 30th at 4 pm at Neuqua Valley High School, the eight boys swim teams that have won IHSA state titles since the 2005-2006 season will be competing in this tournament-style meet, except for University High School (Normal), which won in 2014. The teams competing are:

• Glenbrook South: (2021*)
• Hinsdale Central: (2015, 2023, 2024, 2025)
• Lyons Township: (2016, 2017)
• Naperville Central: (2010)
• Neuqua Valley: (2008)
• New Trier: (2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018)
• St. Charles North: (2019, 2020)
• Stevenson: (2022)

*In the 2020-2021 season, there were no state championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team standings were decided by the team with the most points at their conference championships, which were compiled with the rest of the state into results for the overall team standings, in which GBS came out with the most points.

• Each Team will swim a head-to-head dual meet with altered events against another team. Each team will have two dual meets, with each bracket featuring four teams.
• Each swimmer can swim a maximum of two individual and three total events per dual meet.
• Higher Team Seeds in Lanes 2, 4, 8.
• Lower Team Seeds in lanes 1, 5, 7

Event 1 (To be used for seeding purposes and tiebreaker only): 400 Medley Relay (8×50 with 2 Back, 2 Breast, 2 Fly, 2 Free) The result will determine seeding – 1st place gets 1 seed, 2nd place gets 2nd seed…It will also serve as a tiebreaker. If two teamstie at the conclusion of a dual meet, the better seed would be the winner of the dual meet. Only

The top four teams in this relay could be the overall Illinois Dual Meet Champion.

Note: A special rule for the 400 medley relay – A team will be assessed a one-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 the 8th seed.

Dual Meet Round One (Seeds based off 400 Medley Relay Result)

• 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)

Order of Events:

• 200 Medley Relay (6 total points available to win, 2 points per matchup 4vs5, 1vs 2, 7vs8)
• 100 Free-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 Fly-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
• 100 Back-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
• 100 Breast-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
• 200 Free Relay– (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.

Dual Meet Round 2 (Championship Round):

• 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)

Order of Events (Same as Round 1):

• 200 Medley Relay–(6 total points available to win, 2 points per matchup 4vs5, 1vs 2, 7vs8)
• 100 Free-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 Fly-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
• 100 Back-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
• 100 Breast-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
• 200 Free Relay–(6 total points available to win, 2 points per matchup 4vs5, 1vs 2, 7vs8)

Meet timeline:

• The Preliminary Round will begin around 4:15
• Event 2: 200 Medley Relay (3 entries–12 swimmers)
• Event 3: 100 Free-3 entries
• Event 4: 100 IM-3 entries
• Event 5: 100 Fly-3 entries
• Event 6: 100 Back-3 entries
• Event 7: 100 Breast-3 entries
• Event 8: 200 Free Relay– (3 entries, 12 swimmers)
• 5:35-6:30 Break

At the conclusion of the 8th event, there will be a 55-minute break, which will feature music, video board, interviews, and team building. One of these team-building events will be the Rob Rooney Rock/Paper/Scissors Tournament. Each team will have a mini tournament within their own team (best of one per matchup) to ultimately send one swimmer per team to the quarterfinals. At that point, the 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, and 4 vs 5 will all do a best-of-three matchup.

The winners advance to the semifinals, and then we move on to the finals to determine our overall Rob Rooney Rock/Paper/Scissors Champion. The winner will be presented with an award.

The Championship Round will begin at 6:30:

• Event 9: 200 Medley Relay (3 entries–12 swimmers)
• Event 10: 100 Free-3 entries
• Event 11: 100 IM-3 entries
• Event 12: 100 Fly-3 entries
• Event 13: 100 Back-3 entries
• Event 14: 100 Breast-3 entries
• Event 15: Event 15: 200 Free Relay– (3 entries, 12 swimmers)
• Final Event concludes ~7:50
• Awards