Meets, from the deck
Meets: four a year at home, and the road beyond
The City of Atlanta Dolphins host four meets a year: two short course meets swum in 25 yards and two long course meets swum in 50 metres. Around those sit the named invitationals below, which have run for years under the same names, and the away meets the team has travelled to across Georgia.
This page is the team's meet history, not a live results board. The meet archive on the team's own site runs to January 2020, and results were posted there as PDFs. New to racing? Start with first meet prep.
Heat sheet
The invitationals the Dolphins have hosted
Each name below comes from the team's own meet pages, with the edition and dates as they were listed. The largest figure on a row is its edition number, so you can see how long a meet has been part of the Atlanta calendar.
Lane and event
Edition
Luqman R. El-Amin Invitational
8th annual in 2014, 9th in 2015, 13th annual Nov 8 to 10, 2019
13th annual, 2019
Martin Luther King, Jr. Invite, the MLK Holiday Classic
22nd annual Jan 8 to 10, 2016, 26th annual Jan 10 to 12, 2020
26th annual, 2020
Black History Invitational
30th annual, Feb 12 to 14, 2016
30th annual, 2016
End of Season Meet
13th annual, Jul 10 to 12, 2015
13th annual, 2015
Bluefin Pentathlon
Sep 22, 2018
2018
Tommy L. Jackson Diversity Invitational
5th annual, June 22 to 24, 2018, as printed on the framed coach placard
5th annual, 2018
Away from the home pool
Where Dolphins have travelled to race
The away meets named on the team's pages, from Georgia Tech to Macon to Columbus. It is a record of where the team has swum, and it ends in early 2020 with the last results posted. Practice groups and times are on the practice schedule.
Away meets on the team's pages
- Georgia Tech Fall Invitational (2014)
- Cullen Jones Diversity Invitational (October 2014)
- SE Spring Fling (April 2014)
- Swim Macon Long Course Invitational (May 2014)
- Carol Tate Long Course Invitational (June 2014)
- Georgia Senior Short Course State Championships (December 2014 and December 2015)
- Candy Cane Sprint
- Betty Pope Invitational
- Swim With Dad Invitational
- HURR Fall Classic, Columbus Aquatic Club (October 2019)
- Marlins Superbowl Challenge (January 26, 2020)
Your first meet
Read the heat sheet, write it on your arm, then warm up
The heat sheet is the meet's program. It lists every event, every heat and the lane each swimmer is in. Find your swimmer's name, then copy the events onto an event grid. The Dolphins coaches' first-meet guide has swimmers write that grid in Sharpie on the arm, so the event, heat and lane are never more than a glance away between races.
Swimmers 10 and under report to the bullpen before their heat. The bullpen is the holding area where the youngest racers are gathered and lined up in order, so nobody has to find their own way to the blocks.
Then there are the warm-ups, which the team treats as part of the meet and not as an optional extra. Its guide gives three reasons: team unity, because the squad gets in the water together; physical, because muscles and strokes need to be loose before racing; and mental, because a swimmer who has already felt the pool walks to the blocks calmer. For more on how new swimmers are placed first, read about the stroke evaluation.
Swim meet entry and fee
The entry fee is owed once your swimmer is entered
- The entry fee is due by the date on the event form.
- Once a swimmer is entered, the fee is payable whether or not they swim.
- Entries are not submitted to the meet without the fee.
- Entries and meet forms are posted at Adamsville Natatorium.
The full fee schedule and the registration amounts are on the fees and procedures page.
Volunteers
Timers are the job the team needs most
A meet cannot start a heat without people on the stopwatches, so the team asks families to volunteer as timers first. Parents who time one lane learn how a meet runs very quickly, and it is the easiest way to see your swimmer race up close.
The coaches' guides for parents, including the role of the parents and the parent and coach relationship, are collected under parent resources. Questions about a particular meet can go to coachjackson@swimcad.com.