All season long, the ACC's swimming and diving teams have been training and competing in relatively inconsequential dual meets -- all in preparation for something bigger at the end of the season.
Those teams will see if all that work has paid off when the ACC women's championships begin today in College Park, Md.
"(The ACCs) and the NCAA (championships) are the two weeks that you swim the other 50 weeks of the year for," said North Carolina coach Frank Comfort.
The event will be markedly different than the dual meets of the regular season.
While a dual meet involves just two teams and lasts only a few hours, every team competes for three days at the ACC championships. UNC junior Christy Watkins said the event can be draining.
"It's emotional," Watkins said. "By the end you're exhausted, but it's so much fun you don't notice."
Another difference is scoring. At a dual meet, only the top five finishers in an individual race place for points; at the conference meet, the top 16 racers place, rewarding teams with depth.
The judging of diving events also changes. At the ACC's there are seven judges instead of the usual two, and the high and low scores are thrown out.
"It's a different kind of beast," Comfort said.