In the Nationals Forum their has been discussion about the decision to swim 200s at Nats by time only and not by age groups. forums.usms.org/showthread.php .Here is your chance to register your opinion for future reference.
But, if I were a 60 year old who can still beat plenty of people 2-3 decades younger than me wouldnt it be sweet?
I tend to agree with this - I'd prefer to be seeded with folks closer to my times then with my age group. In some events, it just gives better competition. Being a bit on the slow side, I'm more focused on competing with my own times rather than with particular individuals that just happen to be born around the same time as me. And by way of bonus, being in an earlier heat means I get to enjoy watching the other faster swimmers in my age group and maybe learn something that will make me faster.
There are NQT's (National Qualifying Times) posted for every meet. They do go by age group and gender for each event at the meet. However, it doesn't sound like they are enforced.
I personally wouldn't mind enforcement of the current rules - i.e. that you can't enter more than 3 events if you haven't qualified. I think it's a nice balance of inclusiveness for those that haven't made NQTs and fairness for those that have. The first year I swam in masters I hadn't qualified for anything, but was very happy I could experience Nationals in a couple of events and have swims good enough to qualify for the next year's. Qualifying for nationals is a goal that I carry into practice each day and I've FINALLY managed to qualify in 3 events so I'm really looking forward to FINALLY being able to enter 6 next year.
I have noticed, though, that there are plenty of people that enter with NQT seed times for the max number of events in which they have never in their history come anywhere near meeting... and then they of course finish dead last in the heat by a long margin. I find this quite rude as it throws off the timeline for everyone (for potentially 6 races), and takes away a nice spot in a faster heat for the next seed. Of course this is magnified for longer races. And, BTW, there were plenty of people encouraging me to enter 6 my first year ("who cares... no one checks... you're close enough...")
From what I understand of the history of the rule, we're ending up right where we used to be (painfully long national meets) and when we don't enforce it, it becomes unfair for the folks that have worked hard to qualify. I would really like to swim a 6th event for the first time and not have that taken away because there are too many entries from folks that didn't qualify.
