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 alternative would be to cut longer events and shortchange the distance swimmers.
jroddin - I disagree with this. I suggest you just cut a few more 50s. First, why do we even swim 50s since that stops when you turn 13 (except free)?
Second, no matter what you do the sprinters will still whine, cry, sulk, complain, moan, groan, sandbag, hyperventilate, have psuedo-scientific unsupportable hunches concerning training, stomp feet, require multiple non-food inhaling devices, get colds, get the flu, write Congress, demand their own locker rooms, stage both non-peaceful and extraordinarily violent protests, and go on hunger strike anyway. What's an extra tiny bit of noise from an already overly noisy group?
Keep the peace, keep the distance events.
The alternative would be to cut longer events and shortchange the distance swimmers.
jroddin - I disagree with this. I suggest you just cut a few more 50s. First, why do we even swim 50s since that stops when you turn 13 (except free)?
Second, no matter what you do the sprinters will still whine, cry, sulk, complain, moan, groan, sandbag, hyperventilate, have psuedo-scientific unsupportable hunches concerning training, stomp feet, require multiple non-food inhaling devices, get colds, get the flu, write Congress, demand their own locker rooms, stage both non-peaceful and extraordinarily violent protests, and go on hunger strike anyway. What's an extra tiny bit of noise from an already overly noisy group?
Keep the peace, keep the distance events.
