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
Originally posted by Nate
I know that when my daughter, swimming USS, was trying to get her junior national 100 backstroke cut during the first half of the 200 back, she had to notify the starter and the swimmers in the lanes immediately beside her. I cannot quote the rule.
USMS has a similar rule. It's 103.13.1, and it says your split in a longer race can count as an official time if you notify the meet referee, before the end of the meet, that you want your split to count. For backstroke and relay lead-off splits, though, you have to notify the referee BEFORE you swim the event. This is so the officials can verify that you do a legal finish at the split distance, and if they don't know in advance to look for this then they can't attest that you touched while on your back at the 100 split of your 200 back. Also, for your relay split to count, your relay can't be disqualified. I guess this is to prevent someone from swimming just the 50 back in a 200 medley relay, with no other teammates and no intention of actually competing in the relay race. The notification has to be in writing, and your best bet is to get a form from the meet director well before your event. There's no requirement that you have to notify the other swimmers in the heat that you're going for an initial split, but sometimes the starter will announce this before starting the race.
Meg Smath
Editor, Rule Book
Originally posted by Nate
I know that when my daughter, swimming USS, was trying to get her junior national 100 backstroke cut during the first half of the 200 back, she had to notify the starter and the swimmers in the lanes immediately beside her. I cannot quote the rule.
USMS has a similar rule. It's 103.13.1, and it says your split in a longer race can count as an official time if you notify the meet referee, before the end of the meet, that you want your split to count. For backstroke and relay lead-off splits, though, you have to notify the referee BEFORE you swim the event. This is so the officials can verify that you do a legal finish at the split distance, and if they don't know in advance to look for this then they can't attest that you touched while on your back at the 100 split of your 200 back. Also, for your relay split to count, your relay can't be disqualified. I guess this is to prevent someone from swimming just the 50 back in a 200 medley relay, with no other teammates and no intention of actually competing in the relay race. The notification has to be in writing, and your best bet is to get a form from the meet director well before your event. There's no requirement that you have to notify the other swimmers in the heat that you're going for an initial split, but sometimes the starter will announce this before starting the race.
Meg Smath
Editor, Rule Book
