USS (United States Swimming) meet competition requires membership to Connecticut Swimming Inc. All team members are required to joing USS membership as it is the philosophy of the team to support United States Swimming and Connecticut Swimming as well as receive the insurance coverage from these governing bodies. Competitive groupings are based on a swimmer's age on the date of the meet, and the swimmer's best time for the event they are swimming. USS has many different levels of competition so that all swimmers are racing against other swimmers with similar best times regardless of swimming experience. USS also provides for more swimming events better matched to each swimmers interest. It is thru USS Swimming that swimmers reach State, Regional, and National levels of competition.

Swimmers will not be required to attend all USS Meets. The coaching staff has selected those meets that the A.R.A.C. will attend as a Team, no swimmer will be allowed to attend a meet not recommended by the coaching staff.

How to sign up for US Meets:
You will receive a schedule of the meets Coaches would like your swimmer to go to. Please discuss this opportunity with your child. If your child/children wish to participate in an upcoming USS meet, please follow these steps.

1. Coaches/Board will email the list of meets to sign-up for. This will also be posted on the ARAC website. If you sign up by the cut-off date, your swimmer will be entered in the meet. If you don't sign up, your swimmer will not be entered. If you sign up for a meet and don't show up, you will still have to pay your swimmer's entry fees. ARAC swimmers do not pay entry fees to any meet we are hosting. Entry fees for meets range between $4.00 and $6.00 per event swum depending on the type of meet it is. All meets posted on the bulletin board will list the following information: Date of Meet, Swimming Events Offered, Cost of Entry Fee.

2. Be sure to check the bulletin board on a regular basis, (at least twice a week) to insure your swimmer will not miss an opportunity to go to a USS Meet. Meet announcement details can be found on the web by clicking the specific meet entry listed in the USS Schedule page. Or, families can see the details by going to www.ctswim.org and clicking Meet Announcements and locating the meets entered. Pay specific attention to the warm-up times and which events your swimmer has been entered in for each day.

3. Invitational Meets are only for those swimmers who make the cut-off times to be entered in that meet. Coaches will let you know if you've made the cut-offs.

4. Questions??? Ask your Coaches. We hope to see lots of swimmers compete in USS meets. This is a wonderful opportunity to gain additional racing experience and a lot of fun!