Mission Viejo had very good facilities, great weather, superb organization, and the best hosts. Overall a great meet.
However, as commented in another thread, there were lots of no shows. In four of five events I had an empty lane next to me. This is not the best racing environment, and it makes the meet last longer than necessary. I am not critical of the people that did not show up -- I was one of them on Thursday, as an emergency at work made me arrive a day late.
On deck seeding would be a simple and easy solution.
Evidently some people like to know a day or days in advance who will swim in their heat. However, the way it worked for me, I found out as I walked up to the block who would *not* be swimming. *That's* lots of opportunity to get psyched! (not)
I don't think the way this meet was seeded (check in for distance events, advanced seeding for the other events) was a very good compromise. This was my first non-deck seeded masters meet, and I did not enjoy that aspect of it.
Here is some info on check-in rates and no shows.
For the Pre-seeded events (50's, 100's, and 200's), there were 716 no shows (21%). That's one in every 5 swimmers who do not make it to the blocks.
For the deck seeded events (400, 800, and 1500 Free and the 400 IM), there were 183 (19%) that did not check in or scratched before the events were seeded and 32 no shows (4%). Note that the no shows for the 1500 Free on Monday were 19 (10%).
The Host would need an extra 3 or 4 people working the meet to deck seed all the events. However, everyone would get to go home earlier and there would be fewer empty lanes.
Here is some info on check-in rates and no shows.
For the Pre-seeded events (50's, 100's, and 200's), there were 716 no shows (21%). That's one in every 5 swimmers who do not make it to the blocks.
For the deck seeded events (400, 800, and 1500 Free and the 400 IM), there were 183 (19%) that did not check in or scratched before the events were seeded and 32 no shows (4%). Note that the no shows for the 1500 Free on Monday were 19 (10%).
The Host would need an extra 3 or 4 people working the meet to deck seed all the events. However, everyone would get to go home earlier and there would be fewer empty lanes.
