The anti-sandbag law:
"if a swimmer enters an event with a time significantly slower or faster than that swimmer's recorded time in the past two years, the meet director may, after a discussion with the swimmer, change the seeded time to a realistic time" (104.5.5.A(10)).
Concerning my Auburn nationals entry, I confess, when faced with a 7 hour 2 stop flight and 3:45 nonstop at an earlier time, I did what any warm-blooded middle-aged American swimmer with low self-esteem would do--sandbag my entry so I could catch the earlier flight, thus diminishing the possible time spent sitting next to a 400 pound Alabama slammer with sleep apnea wearing nothing but overalls and body odor. Of course, I was caught in my bold fabrication and my time was "fixed."
USMS seems to have an identity problem. Are we hard core with rigid qualifying times? It would seem not as 2 of my not-so-speedy family members were allowed to swim four events last year in Puerto Rico. If we are not hard core, why does anybody care that I sandbag? More to the point, why can one person enter a crappy time and another cannot? Just wondering.:)
I think it's one of those things where on a micro level it's obviously not going to affect the timeline by much. Kurt Dickson sandbagging one event may not affect the timeline at all, but when people start sandbagging as a matter of course it can cause the meet to run significantly longer, and in my opinion this is the only reason why sandbagging is "bad." I couldn't care less where anyone seeds themselves otherwise, but--especially at long course Nationals where days can be long--I think sandbagging should definitely be discouraged.
I think it's one of those things where on a micro level it's obviously not going to affect the timeline by much. Kurt Dickson sandbagging one event may not affect the timeline at all, but when people start sandbagging as a matter of course it can cause the meet to run significantly longer, and in my opinion this is the only reason why sandbagging is "bad." I couldn't care less where anyone seeds themselves otherwise, but--especially at long course Nationals where days can be long--I think sandbagging should definitely be discouraged.
