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 there is a lot of room for sandbagging, because I don't think it should matter so much who is next to you. I know it does matter some, but here is the other side of the coin:
Imagine entering the 400 IM in a local meet in under 5:00 and being placed in a heat where people are legitimately seeded at over 12:00. No one is sandbagging, but it has an undesired result. This is what the rules say to do.
My point is that there is no rule against vastly different times in the same heat.
I think there is a lot of room for sandbagging, because I don't think it should matter so much who is next to you. I know it does matter some, but here is the other side of the coin:
Imagine entering the 400 IM in a local meet in under 5:00 and being placed in a heat where people are legitimately seeded at over 12:00. No one is sandbagging, but it has an undesired result. This is what the rules say to do.
My point is that there is no rule against vastly different times in the same heat.
