Thanks for a great meet yesterday! That was a lot of kids, and a lot of great swims. For our week ahead:
M-F - practice 6:15-8:30
Saturday - Meet at Ludington, warm up starts at 9:00, meet at 10:00
We are entering the final stretch for this season. Our last dual meet is Saturday. That is our last chance to make a cut to qualify for individual events in the A meet.
So here goes the annual dissertation on what the championship meets mean and are.
Firstly, one week from this Saturday will be our B meet in Hamilton. That meet is for all 12&Under athletes that do not achieve an individual A meet qualifying time. The following Friday begins our A meet, a two day event, with 11&Up going to MLA (Holland Aquatics Center) Friday evening, and 10&Under going to East Kentwood Saturday morning. All athletes 13&Up automatically attend the A meet. Your birth date as of 2/9/2018 will determine your age for the A meet.
Athletes are allowed to swim in only 3 events during the championship meets. That can be 2 individual and 1 relay or 2 relays and 1 individual. That combination can span two meets, meaning an athlete can swim individually in the B meet, and as a member of the A meet on relay(s). If the athlete has achieved an A meet standard, they are not permitted to participate in the B meet. It is common practice for me to ask athletes to swim 2 relays so that 3 other kids may get the chance to swim at least one relay. It is also common practice for me to expect athletes to swim in both meets to fulfill relays so that nearly everyone gets a chance to swim a relay and also since relays are the easiest way to score points in the A meet. As a league, we only score the A meet. Each team is allowed only 1 entry per relay event. The A meet offers both a Medley Relay and Freestyle Relay, whereas the B meet only offers a Freestyle Relay. Awards are given for each meet, but usually no medals or ribbons to 13&Up. I have yet to receive information packets for the A meet details, but will post them on our website when I do. The B meet info I have is attached.
It is my goal to talk to each athlete Mon - TU and get their desired events for the championship. I hope to let them all swim what makes them happy. That doesn't mean I won't occasionally ask them to swim a race I think they may place higher in or score better in (I know for many of them that ribbon is the real reason they swim). I hope to have the Ludington meet lineup done after Tuesday's conversations so that I can get the meet file to them then. So please, take the time to go to the website and let me know if you cannot make any of our end of season meets. I will use the data I see on Tuesday as my final plan for meet lineups.
Bill Hamm