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.:)
Be happy that at least Paul Smith seems to have gotten the hang of swimming distance events fastest to slowest at his local meets. Maybe the other 3 guys who run meets in Arizona (attention: Simon Percy, Mark Rankin and Jim Stites) will catch on.
The local meets are where I'd love to see the occasional fast to slow seeding. Distance events are almost always the last event and it definitely affects my desire to swim if I know I'm going to be in the very last heat of the day.
At Nationals slow to fast more often than not helps me. For example in Mesa I was able to fly in Thursday morning knowing I wouldn't be swimming the 1650 until sometimes in the afternoon. Distance events don't typically end the days at Nationals, so I don't think it's as much of an issue--IMO, of course.
Be happy that at least Paul Smith seems to have gotten the hang of swimming distance events fastest to slowest at his local meets. Maybe the other 3 guys who run meets in Arizona (attention: Simon Percy, Mark Rankin and Jim Stites) will catch on.
The local meets are where I'd love to see the occasional fast to slow seeding. Distance events are almost always the last event and it definitely affects my desire to swim if I know I'm going to be in the very last heat of the day.
At Nationals slow to fast more often than not helps me. For example in Mesa I was able to fly in Thursday morning knowing I wouldn't be swimming the 1650 until sometimes in the afternoon. Distance events don't typically end the days at Nationals, so I don't think it's as much of an issue--IMO, of course.
