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.:)
The only times I've ever heard anyone complain about someone else's seed times, it was either a masters swimmer, a disgruntled coach, or a uptight age group parent
Slight tangent, but funny you mention this. The first time I recall anyone complaining about someone else's seed time was when I was a teenager and it was the parent of another swimmer. This was at our state long course championship meet and this parent approached me while I was eating breakfast and asked if I had seen this (third) swimmer swim the time he was seeded with in the 1500. I said no. This kid was entered with a very fast time and obviously the parent was miffed that he was seeded ahead of or very close to his son's time (who was a phenomenal swimmer).
Now here's the kicker to this story. I just read in the last couple years that the coach of the third swimmer--the one with the dubious seed time--was reprimanded by USA Swimming for entering his swimmers with bogus times. As in they hadn't achieved Sectional times, but he falsified results to make it look like they had. So, looks like the disgruntled parent all those years ago may have been on to something!
The only times I've ever heard anyone complain about someone else's seed times, it was either a masters swimmer, a disgruntled coach, or a uptight age group parent
Slight tangent, but funny you mention this. The first time I recall anyone complaining about someone else's seed time was when I was a teenager and it was the parent of another swimmer. This was at our state long course championship meet and this parent approached me while I was eating breakfast and asked if I had seen this (third) swimmer swim the time he was seeded with in the 1500. I said no. This kid was entered with a very fast time and obviously the parent was miffed that he was seeded ahead of or very close to his son's time (who was a phenomenal swimmer).
Now here's the kicker to this story. I just read in the last couple years that the coach of the third swimmer--the one with the dubious seed time--was reprimanded by USA Swimming for entering his swimmers with bogus times. As in they hadn't achieved Sectional times, but he falsified results to make it look like they had. So, looks like the disgruntled parent all those years ago may have been on to something!
