first of all, congrats to the meet directors and all the volunteers on a job well done. so organized and efficient!! very impressive. the only thing i wish someone could explain to me is why the usms champ. committee changed the team scoring from large, medium and small team to clumping everyone in the same category. seems extremely unfair to have what i call "real teams" competing against state mega teams. there is no possibility for "real teams" to ever come close to competing against them. if you are going to give team awards at the end of the meet, is there any way you can do it fairly? our team is extremely proud to have gotten as many team members as we did to go to natls. (most of them for the first time), but unfortunately they were very disillusioned (as was i) with the idea that we would be competing against state teams. as one of the coaches i didn't have an explanation. even though we were very proud of our 7th place finish in men's division, and our 12th place in combined, we were only one of a few "real teams" in the top ten. would appreciate responses. maybe even someone from the champ.committee could explain how they felt this scoring system would be more fair to the majority of swimmers. then i can pass it along to my teammates.. i don't want them to be so disillusioned that they lose interest in attending any future natls. thanks
Michael,
Top 10 swimmers score more points than average swimmers.
If the meet were to grow due to teams wanting to have more swimmers collecting relay points and a greater percentage of their registered swimmers at the meet, USMS would then respond by lowering NQTs thereby making the meet faster and keeping it manageable.
It is very unlikely that teams will divide and have a portion of the team register as a new team with USMS for the sole purpose of placing higher at the national meets.
My opinion of USMS nationals is that the meets are generally very fast (many records are set), they offer the top swimmers excellent competition, and they allow all masters swimmers the chance to participate and enjoy the excitement of the big meet. So I don't think USMS nationals are broken. My proposal would just level the scoring playing field a bit while understanding that those teams with more fast swimmers will always win the meet. That seems fair to me.
Jon
Michael,
Top 10 swimmers score more points than average swimmers.
If the meet were to grow due to teams wanting to have more swimmers collecting relay points and a greater percentage of their registered swimmers at the meet, USMS would then respond by lowering NQTs thereby making the meet faster and keeping it manageable.
It is very unlikely that teams will divide and have a portion of the team register as a new team with USMS for the sole purpose of placing higher at the national meets.
My opinion of USMS nationals is that the meets are generally very fast (many records are set), they offer the top swimmers excellent competition, and they allow all masters swimmers the chance to participate and enjoy the excitement of the big meet. So I don't think USMS nationals are broken. My proposal would just level the scoring playing field a bit while understanding that those teams with more fast swimmers will always win the meet. That seems fair to me.
Jon
