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.:)
A couple of the sprint events, however, were won overall by someone in the second-to-last heat. This seemed unusual. Maybe they had the swim of their lives and dropped a second+ in the 50. And maybe they sandbagged an entry time. Who am I to say?I saw that in more than one event as well. I think a lot of folks used seed times from previous years where they used a bodysuit (e.g Atlanta). Slower swims from the veterans in the champ heat combined with a fast newcomer seeded in a slower heat could be the reason for this. When I used bodysuit times for seeding and swam in a jammer in Atlanta, I got creamed in the championship heats. Hopefully by next year this aspect will be sorted out.
A couple of the sprint events, however, were won overall by someone in the second-to-last heat. This seemed unusual. Maybe they had the swim of their lives and dropped a second+ in the 50. And maybe they sandbagged an entry time. Who am I to say?I saw that in more than one event as well. I think a lot of folks used seed times from previous years where they used a bodysuit (e.g Atlanta). Slower swims from the veterans in the champ heat combined with a fast newcomer seeded in a slower heat could be the reason for this. When I used bodysuit times for seeding and swam in a jammer in Atlanta, I got creamed in the championship heats. Hopefully by next year this aspect will be sorted out.
