Reasonable seed times

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
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  • What Bob said. "The new center of masters swimming" :) is seeing very long meet sessions at championships as well. Every minute counts. With each meet we run, we learn a little more. Note also for USA Swimming rules on intermediate distances... as far as I know, there is no requirement of notifying others in the heat that you're going for a split time, but it's definitely a polite thing to do. Also, for the time to count, you need to finish your own race legally. In a relay, if you lead off, you only need to finish your own leg legally. If the relay gets DQed for a false start, etc., your lead-off split still counts. -Rick
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  • What Bob said. "The new center of masters swimming" :) is seeing very long meet sessions at championships as well. Every minute counts. With each meet we run, we learn a little more. Note also for USA Swimming rules on intermediate distances... as far as I know, there is no requirement of notifying others in the heat that you're going for a split time, but it's definitely a polite thing to do. Also, for the time to count, you need to finish your own race legally. In a relay, if you lead off, you only need to finish your own leg legally. If the relay gets DQed for a false start, etc., your lead-off split still counts. -Rick
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