Enchanted Forest Swim Meet begins today

Reporter photos by Richie Hall ABOVE: Dan Knott, Dustin Survant and Brad Resner help out with the setup for the Noblesville Swim Club’s Enchanted Forest Swim Meet, which begins today at the Forest Park Aquatic Center. BELOW: Samantha Eicher is the hospitality co-chair for the Enchanted Forest Swim Meet.

The Noblesville Swim Club’s annual Enchanted Forest Swim Meet begins today at the Forest Park Aquatic Center, and it looks to be the biggest meet ever in the event’s history.
“We currently have 962 swimmers for the meet,” said meet director Chris Berger.
Those swimmers will be divided up among 30 teams, as well as a few unattached swimmers. The majority of teams are from Indiana, with one notable exception: Pickering, a swim club from the Toronto area, will be making its way from Canada to the Hoosier state.
In addition to Noblesville, four other county swim clubs will have swimmers there, including Southeastern Swim Club, Fishers Area Swimming Tigers, Westfield Aquatics, and Power Aquatics, which represents the Hamilton Heights area.
“I think our swimmers, our athletes are pretty excited and I hope that the visiting teams are excited, too,” said Berger. He and the other meet volunteers were busy Thursday evening setting up for the meet.
There will be two sessions today. Session 1 starts at noon and will feature the 400 individual medley and the 400 freestyle events. These races will be contested by age groups 13-14 and in the “Open” group, which usually means ages 15 and up. Gates open at 10 a.m.
Session 2 begins at 5 p.m. The 10 and Under and 11-12 age groups will race in the 200 free and the 200 IM; then the session concludes with the Open 1500 freestyle.
Admission is $6 for a single-day pass, or $15 for the whole weekend. Children ages 12 and under are admitted free. Concession stands will be open for breakfast, lunch and snacks. Limited seating is available, so spectators are welcome to bring their own chairs.
The schedule for both Saturday and Sunday is as follows: The morning sessions start at 7 a.m., the afternoon sessions begin at 12:45 p.m., and the finals are set for 5:30 p.m. Gates open at 5:45 a.m. both days.
During the weekend, the 13-14 and Open age groups will swim preliminaries in the morning and finals in the evening. The 10 and Under and 11-12 group will swim in the afternoon, with the 11-12 swimmers competing in prelims during that time. The 11-12 group will then swim finals in the evening. All 10 and under events will be timed finals.
Saturday events include the 200 free, 200 butterfly, 100 backstroke, 50 free and 200 breaststroke, with the younger ages (10 and under and 11-12) competing in the 100 butterfly, 50 backstroke, 50 free and 100 breaststroke.
Sunday events include the 200 IM (for 13-14 and Open swimmers), 100 butterfly, 100 breaststroke, 100 free and 200 backstroke. The 10 and Under and 11-12 groups will swim the 50 butterfly, 50 breaststroke, 100 free and 100 backstroke.
Heat sheets will be available on the Meet Mobile app, the Noblesville Swim Club website, and the spectator viewing area. Results will be posted on Meet Mobile as well.
More information about the meet can be found at the Noblesville Swim Club’s website.