The sport of swimming has time standards which allow a swimmer to track their progress against others of the same age swimming the same events. For some meets, there are also cut times; a swimmer must qualify for each event by swimming at or faster than a posted cut time.
In order for a swimmer to qualify for any event in the Maine State Championships in March, he or she must complete the event in a certain amount of time, or faster.
For a swimmer from the Maine Local Swim Committee to qualify for the Eastern Zone meet that is usually held in April, a swimmer must both be 1st or 2nd place ranked in an event at the State Championship and at least a NAG AA swimmer in that event. Swimmers qualifying for this meet travel to the meet location (in 2009, Rochester, NY) and swim against other top-ranked swimmers from other Eastern Zone Local Swim Committees that include Virginia, DC, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. This meet is where Olympians such as Michael Phelps (NBAC-Baltimore, MD), Elizabeth Beisel (ABF-Attleboro, RI), and our own Ian Crocker (PPSC-Portland, ME) got their start.
National Age Group (NAG) Times are a way for each swimmer in the country to gauge their progress in each event against swimmers throughout the nation. The times standards (B, BB, A, AA, AAA, & AAAA) are created by USA Swimming, are updated every quadrennial, and calculated from the results of performances throughout the nation. Each time standard reached is a terrific achievement!
This is a program organized and tracked by USA Swimming. Once an athlete reaches a top-10 consideration time for their respective age group they may apply to have their time acknowledged by USA Swimming as one of the top-10 times in the country in their age group.

This meet is also geared towards Eastern Zone swimmers, primarily 13 & over that have taken the next step towards taking their level of competition to the national level.
This meet provides the swimmer with the first opportunity to compete on a national level. Athletes at this level will compete against NCSA swimming members from around the country.
This meet provides age group swimmers age 19 & younger the ultimate national competition before they qualify for senior nationals and beyond.