The Vicksburg City Pool with be abuzz with activity all weekend long as more than 200 swimmers converge on the pool for the annual Stamm Invitational Swim Meet hosted by the Vicksburg Swim Association.

The competition will kick off Friday at 10 a.m. with a short course session for swimmers under the age of 12.

“We do the medals on the podium and it is geared towards keeping it fun for the young kids and exciting,” VSA coach Mathew Mixon said.

Friday evening, the meet will kick it up another notch as the pool is switched over to long course meters and older swimmers take their turn. The competition will include swimmers in a 10-under division, a 12-under division and a over-13 division.

“There is no top age limit,” Mixon said. “We have some 19-year-olds that are entered in the meet. A lot of times, collegiate swimmers will come home and swim for their club teams in the summer so you will even get some collegiate guys in there every once in a while. There is no upper age in the meets in the summer time.”

High School swimming and most club meets are short course, but during the summer swimmers make the switch to the Olympic long course for an extra challenge.

“In summer, it is a different type season because we do long course meets,” Mixon said. “We don’t go to quite as many. We probably do four to five long course meets a year. We’ve been to two already, we have this one, we’ll go down to Pensacola and we have state meet.

“It is a just a little different. It takes a little bit more endurance and training is a little different for it.”

VSA will be joined by eight teams from Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi for the three-day meet. VSA will be the largest team in the meet with between 70 and 80 swimmers competing Mixon said.

The short course competition will run from 10 a.m. to about 1 p.m. Friday and then the long course distance events will take place Friday evening. The meet will resume Saturday and Sunday mornings and run from 9 a.m. to about 1 p.m. each day.

Mixon said that unlike high school sports, most of these swimmers come with a full contingent of parents and siblings that spend money in Vicksburg throughout the weekend.

“It is good for us to be able to invite these other teams in, and our meet gets over at a decent hour,” Mixon said. “Some of these meets you go to, they last all day long and our meet gets over in time for our visitors to go out and explore a little around Vicksburg and they tend to like that.”