September to March is the Short Course season when meets are held in 25 yard pools. April to August is the Long Course season as meets are held in 50 meter pools. These meets are the top championships for swimmers in the state that have not yet achieved a Jr. National qualifying time. Time standards are published annually for the TAGS meets. The location of each meet varies.
Entries then have to be sent to the team hosting the TAGS meet within a few days.
It's exciting to watch swimmers trying their hardest to earn their way to the state championship meet. That means that they cannot score points for their new club or swim on relay teams. The main purpose of this rule is to prevent swimmers from switching clubs just before an important meet so they can add to the new team's point total. A. USA Swimming publishes time standards for boys and girls by age group that can be used as a scale to gauge a swimmer's level of achievement in each event. Trying to reach the next level in a particular event can be motivational to swimmers.