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.:)
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Former Member
He's in Charlotte now. Gee, thanks a lot.
When he left auburn for charlotte, did he take a paycut?
Aside from the timing and a bad cow-tipping memory from Auburn, a big reason for me NOT to go to summer Nationals is that Auburn is a pain to get to ... pretty much for everyone except those who live there.
I live close to alabama. Auburn is still a pain in the butt to get too by car. I drive to atlanta, head west from there. Once I get to where the interstate ends and the dirt road begins(usually at the GA/AL state line) I have to wait until the dirt road dries out from the rain. Otherwise, I would be stuck. We have to fill-up with gas before entering AL, since grass and hay work better for horse fuel than car fuel.
If we had both prelims and finals, sandbagging would be less of an issue. Since we only have timed finals, the practice appears self-serving and unsportsmanlike.
Agreed
He's in Charlotte now. Gee, thanks a lot.
When he left auburn for charlotte, did he take a paycut?
Aside from the timing and a bad cow-tipping memory from Auburn, a big reason for me NOT to go to summer Nationals is that Auburn is a pain to get to ... pretty much for everyone except those who live there.
I live close to alabama. Auburn is still a pain in the butt to get too by car. I drive to atlanta, head west from there. Once I get to where the interstate ends and the dirt road begins(usually at the GA/AL state line) I have to wait until the dirt road dries out from the rain. Otherwise, I would be stuck. We have to fill-up with gas before entering AL, since grass and hay work better for horse fuel than car fuel.
If we had both prelims and finals, sandbagging would be less of an issue. Since we only have timed finals, the practice appears self-serving and unsportsmanlike.
Agreed
