Section III is the NYSPHSAA section for Central New York: Syracuse and Onondaga County, the Utica and Rome area, Oswego, and north toward Watertown. It is one of the largest sections in the state, and Section 3 swimming is closely followed by the local press: during the girls season, papers print weekly top ten lists from September until the sectional meet.
Section 3 girls swimming follows the fall calendar. Dual meets run from early September, league championships come in October, and the sectional championships, swum by class, close the season in early November. The state championships follow a few weeks later. Section 3 swimming for boys runs in the winter on a separate calendar, and the boys lists follow the same format: the fastest legal time per swimmer and event, updated each meet week until the sectional meet in February.
At the sectional meet, schools are grouped into classes by enrollment, and each class crowns its own team champion. The rankings ignore classes: a swimmer from a small Class C school and a swimmer from a large Class A school sit on the same list, sorted only by time.
- Season
- Fall
- Championships
- By class
- Lists
- Top 25 per event
- Course
- 25 yards
A top 25 list takes every legal time swum by a Section III swimmer during the season and keeps the fastest 25 per event. Each swimmer appears once per event with her best time, so a slower swim later never pushes her down. The lists update after each meet week, which is why the first lists of September look thin and the last lists before sectionals look settled.
The rankings answer a different question than a meet result. A dual meet tells you who won on Tuesday; the list tells you who is fastest in Central New York so far. In Section 3 girls swimming, coaches use it to judge relay orders and entries, and swimmers use it to see how far they are from a scoring place at the sectional final.
Newspaper columns usually print a shorter version. The Section III girls swimming top 10 lists that run in the local press during the season are the first ten places of the same ranking, event by event, often with a short note on the week's best swims. Reading a Section III girls swimming top 10 column next to the full top 25 list shows who is just outside the headline names.
A relay lead-off leg starts from a flat start like an individual race and is often counted as an individual time. The later legs start from a relay takeover and are not.
The rankings follow the order of a high school meet program. Nine individual events, diving included, and three relays make twelve lists, each with its own top 25.
| Ev | Event | Type | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 200 medley relay | Relay | Opens the program |
| 02 | 200 freestyle | Individual | Middle distance |
| 03 | 200 individual medley | Individual | All four strokes |
| 04 | 50 freestyle | Individual | One length down, one back |
| 05 | 1-meter diving | Individual | Scored by judges, not by the clock |
| 06 | 100 butterfly | Individual | · |
| 07 | 100 freestyle | Individual | · |
| 08 | 500 freestyle | Individual | Twenty lengths |
| 09 | 200 freestyle relay | Relay | · |
| 10 | 100 backstroke | Individual | · |
| 11 | 100 breaststroke | Individual | · |
| 12 | 400 freestyle relay | Relay | Closes the program |
Diving is ranked by score, not by time, and usually from a six-dive list in the regular season. Relays are ranked by team, with the four swimmers listed alongside the time.
Each line of a list carries the same fields: the place, the swimmer's name and class year, the school, the time and the meet where it was swum. The meet column is the one to read twice. A time from an early-season invitational and a time from a league championship say different things about where a swimmer is heading, even when the numbers are close. In the shorter events, the 50 freestyle above all, a handful of hundredths can separate ten places, so a small drop in the last week can move a swimmer from the middle of the list into the top ten.
The sectional meet is where the rankings get tested. In 2025 Skaneateles won the Class C title at Nottingham High School with 339 points, ahead of Beaver River with 288. Christian Brothers Academy won Class B, with Jamesville-DeWitt in second. Marcellus swimmer Vivian Pilon won the 200 freestyle in 1:56.66 and the 100 freestyle in 53.54.
Swims like those are the reason to read the lists closely in October. A swimmer who sits fifth on the list in an event often moves up at sectionals, because the season-best times of rested swimmers come in the final meet. For Section 3 swimming, the last list before the sectional meet is the best guide to who will score, and the results of the meet itself become the first line of next season's history.
How often do the Section III top 25 lists change?
They change after every meet week. Early in the season the lists move a lot because few swimmers have posted fast times; by the last weeks before sectionals the top of each event settles and only tapered swims move it.
Does a relay split count in the individual rankings?
A lead-off leg starts from a flat start and is often accepted as an individual time. Splits from the second, third and fourth legs use a relay takeover and are not treated as individual times.
Why does my swimmer appear only once in an event?
Most top 25 lists count each swimmer once per event, using the best legal time of the season. A slower swim later in the season never pushes a swimmer down the list.
What is the difference between a top 10 and a top 25 list?
Only the length. A top 10 list shows the fastest ten swimmers per event and is the format most newspapers print; a top 25 list goes deeper and shows who is close to scoring at the section championship.