What are your thoughts about teams combining for out of LMSC meets (not nationals) and not competing as the same team within the LMSC.
Parents
Former Member
Jerry has brought up some interesting points that I want to address and try to explain why the old system of making categories (small, medium and large) based on entered swimmers at nationals didn't work well.
In theory, it does sound good. Small teams compete against teams with similar numbers. Same with medium and large teams. The reality of the situation was that we had several problems.
1) It was difficult to divide the teams into logical categories. In many meets, only two or three teams would be in the large category (the closest geographically). The division between small and medium teams was even more diffucult. A team with 24 swimmers was medium and a team with 23 swimmers was small. One team would have a fun meet and have a good chance of winning a national championship. The other would be competing with teams more than twice its size in the medium division.
2) Scoring anamolies. We also had problems when the medium category only had 2 or 3 teams. A team could only score a few points and be third place at nationals, while a team in the smaller category would score more points and be 4th in the small team division (no banner).
Based on the problems that existed, the house of delegates approved a rule change that allows us to score places 1 - 10 for combined, men and women at nationals. The teams that scored in the small and medium teams divisions in the past will score in this new system in most years.
Jerry has brought up some interesting points that I want to address and try to explain why the old system of making categories (small, medium and large) based on entered swimmers at nationals didn't work well.
In theory, it does sound good. Small teams compete against teams with similar numbers. Same with medium and large teams. The reality of the situation was that we had several problems.
1) It was difficult to divide the teams into logical categories. In many meets, only two or three teams would be in the large category (the closest geographically). The division between small and medium teams was even more diffucult. A team with 24 swimmers was medium and a team with 23 swimmers was small. One team would have a fun meet and have a good chance of winning a national championship. The other would be competing with teams more than twice its size in the medium division.
2) Scoring anamolies. We also had problems when the medium category only had 2 or 3 teams. A team could only score a few points and be third place at nationals, while a team in the smaller category would score more points and be 4th in the small team division (no banner).
Based on the problems that existed, the house of delegates approved a rule change that allows us to score places 1 - 10 for combined, men and women at nationals. The teams that scored in the small and medium teams divisions in the past will score in this new system in most years.
