A quick question for all of you:
Our state meet is taking place this weekend. The meet entries were cut off last Sunday at 6p.m. The psych sheet was available mid-Monday. About 24 hours later, one of our swimmers found a way to get herself into the meet, despite there being a very strict stipulation regarding no late entries.
She "conveniently" put herself in races where she would place first place without a doubt. In two of the races, she actually knocked her fellow teammates down from first place to second.
Keep in mind that this is not the first time this person has done this, and it should be noted that she repeatedly stated her goal to get "high point" at the meet. According to numerous conversations, she knew she had "missed" the deadline, but failed to seek entry until AFTER the psych sheet came out.
When our coach was notified of this, his reaction was basically, "It's just your time that counts, so I wouldn't worry about points." However, this obviously affects not only the swimmers on her team who were screwed, but other swimmers and other teams who may also be trying to get high point status.
Am I wrong in thinking that this is deceptive at best, and a very clever and manipulative use of a loophole that allows a swimmer to have a very unfair advantage? Is this what USMS has become - winning at any cost? Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing?
I had a similar thing happen to me recently. A swimmer in my age group who wasn't on the published psyche sheets magically appeared on the heat sheets a couple of days later. I wondered about it, but didn't question it, in part because his seed times were significantly faster than mine. I figured it would be poor form for me to complain about someone I had little chance of actually beating in he pool.
The thing I see more often are swimmer who enter the maximum number of events and then cherry pick which ones to scratch after the heat sheets are posted in order to optimize their results.
Another thing I see frequently are swimmers who sandbag their entry seed times so they can get seeded in earlier heats to get more rest time between races.
I had a similar thing happen to me recently. A swimmer in my age group who wasn't on the published psyche sheets magically appeared on the heat sheets a couple of days later. I wondered about it, but didn't question it, in part because his seed times were significantly faster than mine. I figured it would be poor form for me to complain about someone I had little chance of actually beating in he pool.
The thing I see more often are swimmer who enter the maximum number of events and then cherry pick which ones to scratch after the heat sheets are posted in order to optimize their results.
Another thing I see frequently are swimmers who sandbag their entry seed times so they can get seeded in earlier heats to get more rest time between races.
