County Championships, Saturday, August 1st-Sunday, August 2nd, 2026

 

  • "County" is one of the largest summer rec swim meets in the country.  Qualifying for County Championships is often the highlight of a swimmer's athletic career and requires them to swim a County or "Gold" Time to participate.  There are challenging time standards the swimmer must meet in order to compete at County.  
  • In order to compete at County, the Stingrays and the Tri-County Swim League  must abide by all County Championship Rules and Guidelines
  • These are the 2026 qualifying times

Location

  • Acalanes High School, 1200 Pleasant Hill Road, Lafayette

 

Team Camp/Setup

  • Team camp info will be sent out as it becomes available.  

 

Parking

  • VIP parking will be for sale on Monday, July 27th at 8:00pm under the VIP parking section on the County Website . 
  • If you are interested in VIP parking, it will sell out in minutes.  
  • Day of parking will be available in the high school parking lot (it will fill up early) and surrounding neighborhood street parking.  Parking is usually plentiful if you arrive for early morning warmups.  If you arrive later in the day (relays), be prepared to park up to a mile away and hike in.   

 

Entries and Fees

  • Each swimmer is limited to two individual events and two relays.  Even if a swimmer is County Qualified in all events, they must pick the two individual events (and two relays if qualified) that they want to compete.  
  • The team will cover all meet fees for individual swimmers and relays.  

 

12&Under Tech Suit Rules:

  • County follows all USA Swimming guidelines for tech suits for 12/under swimmers.
  • Make sure your 12/under swimmer is in a legal suit for their age.  

 

Approximate Schedule 

  • For individual events (except IM), timed trials will occur in the morning.  The top 10 finishers will advance to Championship Finals (1st-10th).  The next 10 finishers will advance to Consolation Finals (11th-20th). Championship and Consolation Finals will occur in the afternoon.
  • Individual Medley and Relays are Timed Championship Finals only (there are not separate prelims and finals).  IM occurs at the end of the morning and Relays occur first thing after lunch. 
  • Saturday, August 3rd:
    • 9am-12pm – Free trials, Breast trials, 11&up IM (timed finals)
    • 12pm-1pm – Break (entire pool open for warmups for at least 30 minutes)
    • 1pm-4pm – 15-18 50 Free finals, Medley Relay (timed finals), Free finals, Breast finals 
  • Sunday, August 4th:
    • 9am-12pm – Back trials, Fly trials, 10&under IM (timed finals)
    • 12pm-1pm - Break (entire pool open for warmups for at least 30 minutes)
    • 1pm-4pm – Free Relay (timed finals), Back finals, Fly finals

 

Warmups:

  • Both days the entire pool is open for warmups from 7:15-8:30am.   From 8:30am-8:50am, the pool is only available for 8&under swimmers.  There will be announcements for which lanes are available for racing starts.  Please follow instructions from meet officials and lifeguards during all warmup periods. There are no assigned lanes for teams during any warmup periods. 
  • Duing the lunch break both days, there will be a minimum of 45 minutes for warm-ups. The first 15 minutes will be for 8&under swimmers only. The remaining 30 minutes will be open to all swimmers. The exact times will be announced toward the end of the trials sessions both days

 

Clerk of the Course

  • Clerk of the Course – All swimmers must check in and be seated at the Clerk of the Course before their events AND immediately following the Clerk’s Final Call for that age group. No parents will be allowed inside the Clerk of the Course at any time during the meet. Coaches may accompany swimmers 8 and under, only. This area is for participating swimmers and their coaches (as allowed above) only.

 

Volunteer Assignments

  • County will let us know if we have a timing volunteer assignment soon.  As two of our stroke and turn judges have volunteered to work at County (thank you Dave and Gabe!!!), this greatly reduces the number of timing positions they assign us (the last two years, we had zero timing obligatoins because of our stroke and turn judges). 

 

​Apparel and Programs

  • T-shirts and sweatshirts always sell out early.  They will begin sales of apparel and meet programs on Friday, July 31st  at Acalanes High School Pool from 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm.  Cash is preferred as wi-fi/cell service is not reliable on campus.  Credit card and Apple Pay willbe accepted.  If you bring cash, they usually have a separate line which expedites you to the front of the line.  
  • These items will also be on sale at the actual meet but sizes of apparel usually becomes limited very early on.  In 2025, children sizes were sold out on Friday afternoon and the majority of apparel was sold out by early Saturday morning.  

 

Awards

  • Medals will be awarded to 1st-10th place (those who have advanced to the Championship Finals) and rosette ribbons will be awarded to 11th-20th place (those who advanced to the Consolation Finals).  Relay teams will be awarded medals 1st - 10th place only.  
  • The team will collect awards after County Meet weekend and distribute them at our team's Awards Ceremony.