SwimMAC Carolina earned the top spot in USA Swimming’s annual Club Excellence Rankings for the second straight year, with the national governing body announcing the country’s top 200 clubs on Monday.
The Club Excellence Rankings recognizes USA Swimming’s highest-performing clubs in the development of athletes ages 18 years and younger on an annual basis, with clubs awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze medal status based on a point system.
SwimMAC scored 89,639 points this year, significantly higher than the 75,588 they scored last year to lead all clubs.
Top 5 Clubs
- SwimMAC Carolina – 89,639
- Sandpipers of Nevada – 56,757
- Carmel Swim Club – 54,137
- Nation’s Capital Swim Club – 46,326
- Sarasota Sharks – 45,677
The Point System Explained
USA Swimming member clubs earn points based off athlete performance scores. Each team’s ranking score is based on the FINA Points Table, a power point rating system that assigns point values to individual swimming performances based on the Gold, Silver or Bronze time standard. All program requirements, including time standards, can be viewed here.
-USA Swimming
Norvin Clontz and Ben Delmar tied as the highest point-scorers for SwimMAC with 1,724 apiece, while fellow U.S. Junior National Team members Caleb Maldari and Jordan Willis were close behind.
Courtesy: USA Swimming.
FULL USA SWIMMING RELEASE
Courtesy: Devonie Pitre / USA Swimming
USA Swimming today announced the top 200 clubs recognized as Gold, Silver, or Bronze medal clubs in the 2023-2024 Club Excellence Program. The program annually recognizes the highest-performing clubs in developing athletes aged 18 years and younger. To learn more about the program and see the benefits of participation, click here.
SwimMAC Carolina is the reigning champion for the second year in a row, earning an astonishing 89,639 points. This year marks the club’s 19th with Gold Medal status, with top performers including four USA Swimming National Junior Team members. Norvin Clontz (400 freestyle) and Ben Delmar (200 breaststroke) tied for earning the most points with 1,724 each, followed closely by Caleb Maldari (1,712) in the 200 backstroke and Jordan Willis (1,680) in the 200 breaststroke.
The second through fifth place clubs are Sandpipers of Nevada (56,757), Carmel Swim Club (54,137), Nation’s Capital Swim Club (46,326), and Sarasota Sharks (45,677).
Now in its 23rd year, the Club Excellence Program’s primary objectives are to recognize and promote:
- Development of strong, well-rounded age group and senior swimming programs that produce elite 18-and-under athletes
- Resources to motivate and assist USA Swimming member clubs to achieve the highest athlete performance ideals
- Grant funding
- The USA Swimming club development system
18-and-under athletes are eligible to earn points through pool and open-water performances between September 1, 2022, and August 31, 2023. Open water performances from the 5k and 10k at the 2023 USA Swimming Open Water National Championships and the 5k and 7.5k at the 2023 USA Swimming Open Water Junior National Championships are also eligible.
In addition to athlete time standard requirements, member clubs must meet other requirements such as initiating the USA Swimming Safe Sport Club Recognition program by August 31, 2023. All program requirements, including time standards, can be viewed here.
The following USA Swimming member clubs achieved the Gold Medal ranking for 2023-2024:
| Swim Club | Points |
| SwimMAC Carolina | 89639 |
| Sandpipers Of Nevada | 56757 |
| Carmel Swim Club | 54137 |
| Nation’s Capital Swim Club | 46326 |
| Sarasota Sharks | 45677 |
| Lakeside Swim Team | 41167 |
| Long Island Aquatic Club | 41163 |
| Scarlet Aquatics | 38204 |
| Bolles School Sharks | 37855 |
| Rockville Montgomery Swim Club | 36476 |
| NOVA of Virginia Aquatics, Inc | 34545 |
| Lakeside Aquatic Club | 33416 |
| Aquajets Swim Team | 32386 |
| Rose Bowl Aquatics | 32279 |
| TAC Titans | 31983 |
| Longhorn Aquatics | 30418 |
| Crow Canyon Sharks | 28789 |
| Elmbrook Swim Club | 28346 |
| Irvine Novaquatics | 28171 |
| Mission Viejo Nadadores | 27420 |
Crow Canyon Sharks (28,789) earned Gold Medal status for the first time, placing 18th. There are 10 first-time Silver Medal clubs, including The Swim Team (7,105), which earned Club Recognition for the first time in history. In addition to The Swim Team, 15 other clubs earned Club Recognition for the first time:
- The Swim Team (7,105)
- Club Mountaineer Aquatics (6,833)
- Central Ohio Aquatics (6,583)
- Condors Swim Club (6,435)
- Valparaiso Swim Club (5,711)
- Las Vegas Swim Club (5,490)
- Verona Area Swim Team (5,113)
- Mount Pleasant Aqua Club (4,863)
- Los Angeles Swim Club (4,552)
- Life Time Southeast (4,501)
- Annapolis Swim Club (4,458)
- Cougar Aquatics (4,455)
- Texas Gold (4,382)
- Wyckoff YMCA (4,327)
- Life Time North Carolina (4,318)
- Golden West Swim Club (4,271)
In conjunction with the USA Swimming Club Excellence program, USA Swimming will honor 10 clubs as 2024 Podium Clubs. To qualify for Podium Club, a USA Swimming member club must achieve Gold Medal club status for four consecutive years. Congratulations to the following clubs for being recognized this year as a Podium Club:
- Carmel Swim Club
- Elmbrook Swim Club
- Lakeside Swim Team
- Long Island Aquatic Club
- Nation’s Capital Swim Club
- NOVA of Virginia Aquatics, Inc
- Sarasota Sharks
- Sandpipers of Nevada
- SwimMAC Carolina
- TAC Titans
Click here to view the 2023-2024 Club Excellence Program results. For more information about the Club Excellence program, click here.
It seems like just a numbers game. MAC has 1000s of swimmers so seems only logical they would produce more top swimmers as a percentage. We are with a smaller Charlotte team and often get previous MAC swimmers who made it to the top group at MAC and then felt ignored by the coaches in favor of the few super stars. If being a top club is to produce top swimmers at the expense of you other members then MAC is definitely at the top.
I am not a fan of some of the coaching staff and the overall toxic environment, but they do not have 1000s of swimmers. MSA is almost double their size by swimmer count. The percentage of exceptional swimmers at MAC is incredible. Which is why swimmers feel they can’t leave. They truly have group(s) of peers swimming at very high levels. They had 35 swimmers at summer jrs and another 34 at Futures (where more swimmers got summer jr cuts). My guess is they will be sending around 20 swimmers to the Open meet.
A rough estimate – I would think they have 200 15-18 age group swimmers. The percentage of high level swimmers is pretty impressive. A pretty… Read more »
Let’s talk about the “overall toxic environment,” as I think that’s a gross over-representation. Speaking as a former swim parent, do you know what is the largest contributing factor to toxic environments? It’s generally the parents in my opinion. Of course athletes can create toxicity as well, but where did they learn that from? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
As a swim parent who has been at different clubs, I also find that the people who complain the most at SwimMAC are people who have not experienced another clubs. If they did, believe me, they wouldn’t complain nearly as loudly.
There is no perfect swim club, but SwimMAC does a heck of a lot of things right… Read more »
Well said. We were at another club and made the move to SwimMac and could not be happier. Our kids are thriving and have made some wonderful friends. Congrats to SwimMac on this great achievement 2 years in a row.
You don’t have to be a large team to be gold. Plenty of teams under 300. Some under 200. Even a team under 100 athlete has been gold. Swim the right meets at the right time and keep your seniors swimming their last summer at home. 5 short course lanes a group of 25 kids and a bit of LC access will do the trick. Great age group coaching is the real link every year there are 14&U age group LSC champs in major LSCs who never turn their crops of athletes into high level senior swimmers. I’ve worked with 8 of the top 10 teams some have size. Some don’t but ALL have great age group coaching and a… Read more »
Based on some of the comments, sounds like a few folks need to find another team.
Congrats to all the teams, but especially to the swimmers!!!
I am just getting a kick out of what appears to be a photoshopped picture with the Clontz name mostly removed from the cap, but not entirely! What’s up with that?
I could coach that level of swimmers and some would still cut time. Doesn’t change the fact that swimmers are leaving his group and others are refusing to go to his group. The majority of the swimmers that have stayed are because they do not want to leave their friends since it is their last year. No doubt some swimmers like him – it is called the bandwagon effect – you believe it is where the top swimmers are and you want to be a part of that. He can also be extremely charismatic when he chooses to be. swimmac has a ton of great swimmers. Some will follow without question – regardless of what is happening to their teammates.… Read more »
Looks like all the comment I responded to as well as a slew of others has disappeared – – very odd of you swimswam…
people not liking this comment. what’s there to dislike, a does of reality
a few swimmers left the club (swimmac) that were being coached by chuck, a few swimmers left his group for another group at swimmac and several swimmers refused to move up to his group
he talks about swimmers to swimmers, he talks about swimmers to parents (not their swimmer) and he talks about parents to other parents and he talks about parents to swimmers
for parents reading this you know it happens, you are not special, he talks about your kids just like he talks about other kids to you, he is also talking about you to other parents just like he talks about other parents to… Read more »
If you can’t understand why people would downvote that comment, you might actually be the problem. Shrug.
Swimmac parents always bring the drama whenever the team is mentioned on here… yeesh
Brutal…Lake Oswego Swim Club with the 11,000 plus massive point total, thousands more than the other Bronze clubs and more than many Silver clubs, and still only a Bronze medal club? Huh???? Perfect USAS methodology at work!
You need a Silver medal time to be a Silver medal club