There’s plenty of excitement brewing for the Wheaton
NEM 25-Meter Championship. Based
largely on our performance at the 2001 Wheaton 25-Meter Championship, New England
Masters has won the inaugural 2001 Mythical 25-Meter National Championship, see
story http://www.greatbaymasters.org/mythical.htm Can NEM repeat it’s National Champion title
in 2002? The key to our success will be
for NEM’s to swim at Wheaton, and to swim lots of relays.
NEM has also challenged other meets across the country to a “25-Meter Virtual Meet Challenge”. In this contest, the meet results from other major 25-meter masters meets across the country will be scored against each other. The top 16 swimmers and relays will score points. Southern Pacific Masters, Pacific Masters, Pacific Northwest, Arizona, and Midwest (Indiana) have already accepted the challenge. Can NEM prove we’ve got the largest and fastest 25-meter championship in masters swimming? We think so, and need your support – swim with us, and join in the fun.
Entry deadlines are approaching: Entries must be received by November 29 or
postmarked by November 23. Get those
entries in early! Check the meet web
page for psych sheets, and list of entries with problems that must be
resolved: http://www.greatbaymasters.org/02scmchamp.html
All events will be deck seeded from entry form
times. Swimmers must confirm their
entries by 8:30 a.m. each day. Each
swimmer is responsible for checking in personally, you may not designate a
coach or another swimmer to check you in.
Swimmers who do not check in by 8:30 a.m. will be scratched from all
their events for that day. If you
arrive after 8:30 a.m., check-in immediately and you will be re-entered in
events that have not yet been posted.
Seeded heats for each event will be posted on a rolling basis throughout
the day. Seeded heats will be posted to
provide sufficient time for swimmers to comfortably check their heat and lane
assignments before their event.
A meet timeline will be generated and posted on the
meet web page before the meet. Meet
timelines are approximate. Due to
scratches at a deck-seeded meet, the meet may go faster than the
preliminary timeline predicts. It is
the swimmer’s obligation to arrive in plenty of time to check-in before the
seeded heats for their events are posted.
You must be USMS registered to compete at the
Wheaton meet. New England swimmers
must be registered by November 29. To
avoid a $5 charge, you must attach a photocopy of your USMS card. Swimmers who are not presently USMS
registered can likely receive their registration card in time to avoid the $5
charge by mailing their membership form immediately.
If
you have lost your card, you must order a new card from Paul Griffin, NEM
Registrar, P.O.
Box 602, Newmarket
NH 03857.
Take care to fill out your Wheaton entry form
correctly. One of the most common
errors we see is that swimmers forget to sign the waiver at the bottom of the
entry form. You will not be entered in
the meet until we have an entry form with a signed waiver in hand.
Workout Group Leaders Encouraged to Help
Workout Group Leaders can do a lot to help with the
Wheaton meet entry process. By taking an
active role Workout Group Leaders can help assure that all their swimmers swim
at Wheaton:
· Make
sure that your swimmers who are not presently NEM registered do so immediately
· Check
over your swimmer’s Wheaton entry forms.
Look for common errors like unsigned waivers, no copy of NEM
registration card, and seed time errors.
Work with your swimmers to correct these errors.
·
Collect your swimmers Wheaton entry forms and mail them in one
package.
“Dive Over Starting" is a meet management technique used to
reduce the time between heats. There may be close to 200 heats in a day, so
saving 20 seconds per heat could save an hour during the course of the session.
Swimmers completing a heat will finish at the wall, and stay in the water until
the next heat is called to the blocks. Swimmers will stay in the water until
the next heat "Dives Over" the top of them. Immediately after the
next heat has started, the swimmers from the previous heat will exit the pool.
The touch pads will be dead for 20 seconds, so swimmers must exit the pool
within 20 seconds of the starting tone for the next heat. Some swimmers may
wish to use the ladder to climb out of the pool. If you need to use the ladder,
notify the starter in advance.