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
Wayne, what makes you think it doesn't affect the swimmers in heat one when some fast swimmer enters a NT or slow time? As someone who has moved backward thru the years to heat one, I have a different perspective. New, slow swimmers in heat one are made to feel awful by someone lapping them. The older age groups all feel that way, just you wait until you're in heat one and not by choice. Swimming breaststroke in a freestyle heat also makes everyone else feel badly. They think, "Here I am swimming my guts out in the 200 free and he's some guy swimming breaststroke keeping up with me, I must be terribly slow". Give us a break. Swim your 200's *** in practice like everyone else. If it's"not the same" as doing it in a meet, you need to focus more.
Wayne, what makes you think it doesn't affect the swimmers in heat one when some fast swimmer enters a NT or slow time? As someone who has moved backward thru the years to heat one, I have a different perspective. New, slow swimmers in heat one are made to feel awful by someone lapping them. The older age groups all feel that way, just you wait until you're in heat one and not by choice. Swimming breaststroke in a freestyle heat also makes everyone else feel badly. They think, "Here I am swimming my guts out in the 200 free and he's some guy swimming breaststroke keeping up with me, I must be terribly slow". Give us a break. Swim your 200's *** in practice like everyone else. If it's"not the same" as doing it in a meet, you need to focus more.
