The New York State Public High School Athletic Association, NYSPHSAA, divides the state into eleven sections. Each section runs its own regular season, its own league structure and its own championship, and each one sends swimmers on to the state meet. Knowing which section a school belongs to tells you who it races, where its swimmers have to qualify and where its swim data ends up.
Not every section looks the same. Section VIII and Section XI split Long Island between them and field some of the deepest teams in the state; Herricks and Hicksville are among the Nassau County programs of Section VIII, while Tuckahoe swims in Section 1 in Westchester. Section 2 around Albany and Section V around Rochester have long, well-documented league seasons. The northern sections are smaller, with fewer pools and longer bus rides between them. The table below lines the high school swimming sections up like lanes on a heat sheet, numbered the way NYSPHSAA numbers them.
| Lane | Section | Region | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Section 1 | Lower Hudson Valley | Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties, plus part of Dutchess |
| 2 | Section 2 | Capital Region | Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Saratoga and the counties north to the Adirondacks |
| 3 | Section III | Central New York | Syracuse and Utica, with Onondaga, Oneida, Oswego and Madison counties |
| 4 | Section IV | Southern Tier | Binghamton, Ithaca, Elmira and Corning |
| 5 | Section V | Rochester and the Finger Lakes | Monroe County and the counties around it, from Genesee to Wayne |
| 6 | Section VI | Western New York | Buffalo and Niagara Falls, south to Chautauqua and Cattaraugus |
| 7 | Section VII | Northeastern Adirondacks | the Plattsburgh area |
| 8 | Section VIII | Nassau County | the western half of Long Island |
| 9 | Section IX | Mid-Hudson | Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties, plus part of Dutchess |
| 10 | Section X | North Country | St. Lawrence County along the Canadian border |
| 11 | Section XI | Suffolk County | the eastern half of Long Island |
Catholic and many private schools sit outside the high school swimming sections in this table. They compete through the Catholic High School Athletic Association, which keeps its own season and championship. Fordham Prep in the Bronx, Iona Prep in New Rochelle and Kellenberg Memorial on Long Island are among the CHSAA schools with swim teams. Section 2 swimming, Section III and Section V each have their own page on this site, with the leagues, the championship path and the rankings explained in more depth.
Most of a regular season is dual meets: two schools, one pool, twelve events. The order is fixed, from the 200 medley relay at the start to the 400 freestyle relay at the end, with diving placed in the middle of the program. Points go to the top places in each event, and only a limited number of swimmers per team can score.
- Individual event
- 6 · 4 · 3 · 2 · 1
- Relay
- 8 · 4 · 2
- Points on offer
- 186
- Clinches the meet
- 94
The arithmetic is worth doing once. Nine individual events, diving included, pay 16 points each. Three relays pay 14 each. That adds up to 186, so 94 points wins the meet no matter what happens in the remaining events. Coaches watch that number closely: a meet can be decided before the last relay, and some coaches use the final events to try swimmers in new races once the result is safe.
Diving counts like any individual event: six, four, three, two and one point for the top five divers. A school that brings no diver hands those points to the other team, and in a close dual meet that alone can decide the result.
New York splits the sport by season. Girls swim and dive in the fall, with the state championships in late November; the 2025 girls meet was held at the Webster Aquatic Center near Rochester. Boys swim in the winter, with the state championships in early March; the 2026 boys meet took place at Ithaca College.
Each season follows the same pattern. League dual meets fill the first months. Invitationals add bigger fields and faster competition. The section championship comes next and decides who goes on. Swimmers reach the state championships through their section, either by beating a state qualifying time or through the places their section is allotted; the rules are set again each season.
- League season. Weekly dual meets against league opponents, scored as above.
- Invitationals. Larger meets with many teams, where swimmers chase qualifying times.
- Section championship. The meet that crowns section champions and sets the state entries.
- State championships. One meet for girls, one for boys, with the best swimmers from every section.
A results sheet lists each event in program order, with place, name, school and time, plus the points each swim earned. Times are recorded to the hundredth of a second and, for high school meets, always in a 25-yard pool. A time from a meters pool or from a club meet is a different number and should not be compared directly.
Top 25 lists take every legal time swum during the season and rank the fastest 25 per event. They answer a different question than a meet result: not who won on a given night, but who is fastest across the section or the state so far. Most lists count a swimmer's best time once, update after each meet week, and become the best predictor of who will score at the section championship.
Good swim data starts with the meet itself. The most reliable results come from the timing system at the pool, published by the host team or the section. When two sources disagree, the official results from the meet usually win, and corrected times can still change a ranking several days after the meet.
- Section 2 swimming
The Capital Region's leagues, its girls and boys seasons and how the section championship works.
- Section III girls swimming: the top 25 lists
How the Central New York rankings are built and how to read them event by event.
- Section V swimming
Rochester and the Finger Lakes: the boys and girls seasons and the road to the state meet.
- How a swim meet database works
What a results database stores, how swim data gets from the touchpad to a ranking, and what to check before you trust a time.
When is the high school swimming season in New York?
Girls swim and dive in the fall, from late August to the state meet in late November. Boys swim in the winter, from November to the state meet in early March. A few sections run both seasons on slightly different calendars, so check your own section for exact dates.
How many points does it take to win a dual meet?
A standard dual meet has 186 points on offer: nine individual events at 16 points each and three relays at 14 points each. A team that reaches 94 points cannot be caught.
Do New York high schools swim in yards or meters?
High school meets in New York are swum in a 25-yard pool, so every time, record and ranking on the high school side is a short course yards time. Club and summer meets may use meters, and those times are not directly comparable.
What is the difference between a section and a league?
A section is one of the eleven regions that NYSPHSAA uses to organize school sports. Inside each section, schools play in leagues or divisions for the regular season. The league decides who you meet in dual meets; the section runs the championship that leads to the state meet.
Where do Catholic high schools swim?
Many Catholic and private schools compete through the Catholic High School Athletic Association rather than a public school section. They run their own season and championship, and their swimmers appear in their own results and rankings.