Question to throw to the group out of curiosity -- What do people think about reasonable seed times for swim meets? Now, I know that people almost always enter masters meets with times that are best guesses, but what about entry times that are definitely not best guesses?
Hypothetical scenario: 400 IM and 50 free are back-to-back events at an end-of-season championship meet. Swimmer enters both events, with a time of 15:00.00 for the 400 IM, and 23.50 for the 50 free. For other events in the meet, the same swimmer is entered at 2:06 for the 200 IM, 2:10 for the 200 fly, etc. So _clearly_ this person is faster than 15:00 in the 400 IM. When asked, the swimmer says, honestly, that the seed time is bogus so that he has a longer rest before swimming the 50 free right afterwards. (The meet info for this hypothetical situation does _not_ allow for 'NT' entries.)
What do people think about this? I can't find any USMS rule that prohibits this, but it feels rather unfair to the other people in Heat 1 who actually do belong in Heat 1, and will have some fast person in an outside lane lap them a couple times. My personal feeling is that if the order of events doesn't work for you, then don't swim one of the events.
Thoughts?
-Rick
Parents
Former Member
I think the issue raised by Rick's hypothetical is whether a swimmer is "acting in an unsportmanslike manner" by entering a bogus seed time. This is totally unrelated to swimmers who elect to swim "stroke" in freestyle events but still enter a realistic seed time for that stroke. I've rarely if ever heard anyone complain about that kind of situation.
I share Rick's concern about this kind of situation NOT because I want to police seed times BUT I do want to strive for a competitive race for every swimmer within the obvious limits. In other words, I agree that swimmers should be discouraged from entering such bogus seed times on the grounds that it is unsportmanslike
Wayne says that we don't have rules against this practice. Strictly speaking he is correct. However, Section 102.15.3 does give the meet referee the power to penalize or disqualify "any swimmer who acts in an unpsportmanlike or unsafe manner" so it is not entirely out of the realm of possiblity that a swimmer could be DQ for such behavior.
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I think the issue raised by Rick's hypothetical is whether a swimmer is "acting in an unsportmanslike manner" by entering a bogus seed time. This is totally unrelated to swimmers who elect to swim "stroke" in freestyle events but still enter a realistic seed time for that stroke. I've rarely if ever heard anyone complain about that kind of situation.
I share Rick's concern about this kind of situation NOT because I want to police seed times BUT I do want to strive for a competitive race for every swimmer within the obvious limits. In other words, I agree that swimmers should be discouraged from entering such bogus seed times on the grounds that it is unsportmanslike
Wayne says that we don't have rules against this practice. Strictly speaking he is correct. However, Section 102.15.3 does give the meet referee the power to penalize or disqualify "any swimmer who acts in an unpsportmanlike or unsafe manner" so it is not entirely out of the realm of possiblity that a swimmer could be DQ for such behavior.
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