Neuqua Valley Illinois High School Dual Swim Meet Tournament
On Dec. 30, 2025, Neuqua Valley High School (Ill.) will make Illinois high school swimming history when it hosts the state’s first dual-meet tournament and brings together the top eight boys swim programs in Illinois for a one-day showdown prior to the new year.
The eight invited programs (Glenbrook South High School, Hinsdale Central High School, Lyons Township High School, Naperville Central High School, Neuqua Valley High School, New Trier High School, St. Charles North High School, and Stevenson High School) have collectively claimed 19 of the last 20 IHSA state titles. By pitting the state’s most decorated programs head-to-head in a fast-paced, dual-meet format, this event reimagines what a dual meet looks like and raises the stakes for athletes, coaches, and fans.
- Each Team will swim a head-to-head dual meet with altered events against another team. Each team will have two dual meets as each bracket will have four teams.
- Each swimmer can compete in a maximum of two individual events and three total events per dual meet.
- Higher Team Seeds in Lanes 1, 4, 7.
- Lower Team Seeds in lanes 2, 5, 8
Event One (To be used for seeding purposes and tiebreaker only):
400 Medley Relay (8×50 with 2 Back, 2 Breast, 2 Fly, 2 Free) The result will determine seeding (first place gets the No.1 seed, second place gets No. 2 seed, and so on. It will also serve as a tiebreaker. If two teams tie at the conclusion of a dual meet, the better seed would be the winner of the dual meet. Only the top four teams in this relay could be the overall Illinois Dual Meet Champion.
Special Rule for the 400 medley relay Only: A team will be assessed a one-second penalty if there is a false start in the 400 medley relay. If anyone leaves over a half second early, then they get a DQ and finish last. This prevents a strong team from getting a low seed over a slight false start. The preference is to have no false starts in this event! Also, one second penalty per other DQ. Any blatant cheating would result in eighth seed (trying to keep integrity of the meet).
Dual Meet Round One (Seeds based off 400 Medley Relay Result)
- 5 Team Seed vs. 8 Team Seed (Will swim in heat one of each event)
- 6 Team Seed vs. 7 Team Seed (Will swim in heat two of each event)
- 1 Team Seed vs. 4 Team Seed (Will swim in heat three of each event) :
- 2 Team Seed vs. 3 Team Seed (Will swim in heat four of each event)
Order of Events:
- 200 Medley Relay (6 total points available to win, 2 points per matchup 4vs5, 1vs 2, 7vs8)
- 100 Free-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 100 IM-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 100 Fly-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 100 Back-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 100 Breast-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 200 Free Relay– (6 total points available to win, 2 points per matchup 4vs5, 1vs 2, 7vs8)
Lane Assignments:
- Lanes 4 and 5 are the one seed for each team (This is a head to head matchup for one point)
- Lanes 1 and 2 are the two seeds for each team (This is a head to head matchup for one point)
- Lanes 7 and 8 are the three seeds for each team (This is a head to head matchup for one point)
- Lane 3 and 6 will NOT be used for the entire meet
Each team gets one point for each seed that wins head to head. Relays would count for 2 points per win at each seed.
Dual Meet Round 2 (Championship Round):
- Heat 1: Loser of 5 vs 8 and Loser of 6 vs. 7 (Winner is 7th Place)
- Heat 2: Winner of 5 vs 8 and Winner of 6 vs. 7 (Winner is 5th Place and Bracket Champion)
- Heat 3: Loser of 1 vs 4 and Loser of 2 vs. 3 (Winner is 3rd Place)
- Heat 4: Winner of 1 vs 4 and Winner of 2 vs. 3 (Winner is Overall Champion)
Order of Events (Same as Round one):
- 200 Medley Relay–(6 total points available to win, 2 points per matchup 4vs5, 1vs 2, 7vs8)
- 100 Free-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 100 IM-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 100 Fly-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 100 Back-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 100 Breast-3 entries (3 points available to win, one point per matchup 4vs5, 1vs2, 7vs8)
- 200 Free Relay–(6 total points available to win, 2 points per matchup 4vs5, 1vs 2, 7vs8)
Timeline (All times are approximate)
- Warmup
- 2:30-3:45 Warmup (Each team assigned a lane based off 2024-25 State finish, top place in Lane 4,next best place in lane 5…..)
- 3:45-4:00 Promo, Announcements and National Anthem
- Seeding Event
- 4:00–Event 1: 400 Medley Relay (5 Minutes)
- Break 10 minutes to allow for matchups in Meet Manager
- Placing of Seeds on to the Brackets (Each teams sends a representative to the bracket)
- Round 1 (Preliminary Round)
- 4:15 Event 2: 200 Medley Relay (3 entries–12 swimmers) (15 minutes)
- 4:30 Event 3: 100 Free-3 entries (10 minutes)
- 4:40 Event 4: 100 IM-3 entries (10 minutes)
- 4:50 Event 5: 100 Fly-3 entries (10 minutes)
- 5:00 Event 6: 100 Back-3 entries (10 minutes)
- 5:10 Event 7: 100 Breast-3 entries (10 minutes)
- 5:20 Event 8: 200 Free Relay– (3 entries, 12 swimmers) (15 minutes)
- 5:35-6:30 Break
- Total time prior to break: 1:35 minutes
- There will be a 55 minute break with interviews, music, video board, and team building. One of the team building activities is the Rob Rooney Rock/Paper/Scissors Tournament. Each team will have a mini tournament within their own team (best of one per matchup) to ultimately send one swimmer per team to the quarterfinals. At that point, the 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5 will all do a best of 3 matchup. Winners advance to the semifinals and then we move on to the finals to determine our overall Rob Rooney Rock/Paper/Scissors Champion. The winner will be presented an award.
- Round 2 (Championship Round)
- 6:30 Event 9: 200 Medley Relay (3 entries–12 swimmers) (15 minutes)
- 6:45 Event 10: 100 Free-3 entries (10 minutes)
- 6:55 Event 11: 100 IM-3 entries (10 minutes)
- 7:05 Event 12: 100 Fly-3 entries (10 minutes)
- 7:15 Event 13: 100 Back-3 entries (10 minutes)
- 7:25 Event 14: 100 Breast-3 entries (10 minutes)
- 7:35 Event 15: 200 Free Relay– (3 entries, 12 swimmers) (15 minutes)
- Finish Time: 7:50
- Awards