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?
A swimmer can unattach at any time: 201.3.5 A swimmer shall not represent any club in competition for 60 consecutive
days before transferring affiliation to another club, unless this transfer takes
place at the time of annual registration. A swimmer may declare unattached
status at any time without written application.
But UNAT relays are currently prohibited: 102.9 Relays
102.9.1 Relay teams shall not compete unattached. In all cases, relay teams must
be composed of USMS members of the same club, which is a member of
USMS.
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?
A swimmer can unattach at any time: 201.3.5 A swimmer shall not represent any club in competition for 60 consecutive
days before transferring affiliation to another club, unless this transfer takes
place at the time of annual registration. A swimmer may declare unattached
status at any time without written application.
But UNAT relays are currently prohibited: 102.9 Relays
102.9.1 Relay teams shall not compete unattached. In all cases, relay teams must
be composed of USMS members of the same club, which is a member of
USMS.
