With the continued growth in USMS membership, I would submit that it's time to eliminate the regional teams at Nationals. Case in point: NCMS sent a "team" of 123 swimmers to Atlanta, enough to enter A, B, C, and D relays in many events (e.g. the mens 35+ 200 free relay in which our club team placed 13th behind eight regional teams). It's been argued that the formation of regional teams allows more swimmers to participate in relays, yet local clubs from North Carolina sent as many as thirty or more athletes and could have entered relays on their own as our club (with eight swimmers) did. Swim with the guys you actually train with.
I don't know about nationals, but we allow UNAT relays to swim (unofficially) at our local meets and they function in exactly this "pickup" fashion. The relays don't count for anything. I wonder if this could be done at nationals with no change of rules at all? Just plunk down your money for the relay. The main sticking point I see is, is it possible for a person registered to a team actually swim as part of an UNAT relay?
I've been on a couple ad hoc relays at small meets. The only time I ever turned one down was when the relay in question was scheduled right before my 200 fly. In that particular case, the "organizer" was just a guy walking around the pool deck asking each swimmer if they wanted to be on a relay. Join relays, they're fun.
I don't know about nationals, but we allow UNAT relays to swim (unofficially) at our local meets and they function in exactly this "pickup" fashion. The relays don't count for anything. I wonder if this could be done at nationals with no change of rules at all? Just plunk down your money for the relay. The main sticking point I see is, is it possible for a person registered to a team actually swim as part of an UNAT relay?
I've been on a couple ad hoc relays at small meets. The only time I ever turned one down was when the relay in question was scheduled right before my 200 fly. In that particular case, the "organizer" was just a guy walking around the pool deck asking each swimmer if they wanted to be on a relay. Join relays, they're fun.
