Hello Piranha parents and supporters!

I thought it might be helpful to give some context to the season, and CMSL in general, for those of you who may be newer and/or interested. If not, you can send this to your Trash - no offense taken.

Central Maryland Swim League (CMSL) is a summer swim league in existence since the combining of other, smaller, leagues in the 1970’s. It’s sanctioned by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). Each swimmer is insured by the AAU each season. More information on the Board of Directors, Rules of Swimming, etc, can be found on the CMSL website: https://www.gomotionapp.com/team/reccmsl/page/home

The 2025 league was comprised of 8 divisions, and a total of 46 teams (5-6 teams in each division). Teams assigned to Division 1 are often larger teams with the most significant depth and ability, and so on.

Each team in CMSL competes in 5 dual meets, 1 divisional championship, and qualified swimmers may compete in the Straehle’s Invitational, each year.

Officials

Each dual meet has 1 paid official from the Maryland Official’s Club; this is the individual who starts each race and maintains the flow of the meet. Each team also has certified “Stroke and Turn” officials – which is a volunteer position. These are the white-shirted parent volunteers who walk up and down the deck ensuring that the swimmers are engaging in legal strokes and turns, and if not, raise their hand to notify the paid official. If you’re interested in becoming a Stroke and Turn official – we’d love to hear from you! Training includes a 2-hour online, self-paced course and we’ll be sure to mentor you through your first few meets.

We have so many other teams around us – why don’t we swim against them?

The league’s divisions are determined at the beginning of the calendar year by the league’s statistician, who takes into account each team’s depth and ability to score points. We have no ‘say’ on which division we are placed each year. We realize it makes for inconveniently far Away meets, and there are several teams in our local area that we do not swim against in a given year. Every few years, CMSL reevaluates the Divisional make-up and queries teams on their interest in continuing to divide by ‘depth and ability’ or make a change to dividing by location. This happened recently in 2024-2025 and it was the determination of the league to continue to assign divisions by ‘depth and ability’.

Our friend’s children swim on a summer team and they don’t compete on Saturdays – why not?

You may have friends on other local swim teams (York Manor, Hampton, Stoneleigh, etc) who swim on weeknights rather than Saturdays. They’re a part of the “Free State” swim league, comprised of 9 teams. They often have 2 weekday meets each week and end their season in a league championship about a week before our Divisional Championship.

Why do my swimmer’s times look different at some meets?

Springlake, similar to most CMSL teams (not all) maintains a 25-meter competition pool (short course meters or ‘scm’). Some teams (like when we swam at Maple Lawn) have 25-yard pools (short course yards or ‘scy’)– these pools are a bit shorter than 25-meter pools. If you watch swimming in the summer Olympics or this week’s World Championships – you'll see they compete in a 50-meter pool (long course meters or ‘lcm’). Most high schools and colleges are 25 yards, but some gyms have pools of various lengths. 

If your friends in the Free State league discuss their races and times, it might sound VERY different. The Free State league is comprised of pools of various unique sizes, many not a typical 25-meter or 25-yard, so that’s why it may be confusing when talking about races or times!

Overall, how’d we do this year?

A-MAZING!

In 2025, Springlake moved from Division 1 to Division 2 – where we earned a 4-1 record and placed 2^nd to Maple Lawn Swim Club (not too shabby!).

What does this mean for next year? Will we move up?

Not sure.

As noted earlier, our record is not the only determining factor when developing the 8 Divisions pre-season, so we do not know where we will be placed next year. However, teams do not move up or down by more than 1 division each year, so we know we’ll be somewhere within Division 1-3. Through our history, and as our neighborhood and team changes over time, we have moved up and down between divisions 1-5.

When will we know?

When the league assigns the divisions, and the team leadership meets with the other teams in their division to set the schedule, our website will be updated – usually early-to-mid March.

The goal of CMSL is to keep the meets competitive, and the goal of the Springlake Piranhas coaches and team reps is to keep the practices and meets FUN! I’d say the goals were accomplished this year!

Attached you will see the final league standings. The standings are determined by the dual meet record only – The Straehle Invitational and Divisional Championships are not factored the team records nor where each team places.

Feel free to reach out to myself or Coach Mike with any questions you have, or, after looking at the league information, considering other volunteer opportunities for next season!

Go Piranhas! #webiteback