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Guidelines for Entering Meets
Revised 2/6/07
Competitive Meets
Meet cards are due in the “Meet Entries” file at Arbolitos by Tuesday night (10 or 11 days before meet start date). We process the entries and mail them in on Wednesday night. If you have a late entry, contact the meet host, and be prepared to pay double. A few meet hosts will allow you to mail your meet card directly to them, but please do this only as a last resort, and let Di or Toni know you’ve mailed your entry. We must have an accurate head count before the meet so we know how many officials to send. (If we are short on officials we get fined $75 per session).
On the meet card we need your swimmer’s name, birth date, the name and date of the meet, your name and phone number (if we have questions), and the event numbers requested. The event numbers should be placed into the correct boxes based on the stroke and the distance. We do not usually need your swimmer’s times, as those are stored in the computer. Note: If you are mailing your card directly to the meet host, you need to fill out the card completely, including times, which you can look up on www.psswim.com
Novice Meets
Novice meets do not require you to sign up ahead of time. You simply show up at the meet, check in, and pay $5. Novice meets (and competitive meets) require registration with USA Swimming. First time applicants must present an original birth certificate or notarized copy as part of the registration process.
Maximum Number of Events
The maximum number of events you can swim at a meet is 5 per day, unless it says otherwise on the meet sheet. If nothing is specified, you can assume 5. For prelims/finals types of meets (like JOs), the maximum is 3 per day. You can ENTER as many events as you want if you are willing to pay for all of them. However, you will be required to “scratch down” to the proper number of events at check-in, and there are no refunds for events you scratch. Most meets have time standards that might limit the number of events you swim. For example, at a C meet you cannot swim any event that you already have an official B time in. At an A/B meet, you need to have B times to enter those events. There are certain meets where we relax the rules a bit; our own P.S.-hosted meets are an example. Your coach will advise you as to which meets you can enter.
Time Verification Meets
Most championship meets like Junior Olympics (JOs) or out-of-town invitationals require time verification. You might be asked to provide the date, name and/or location of the swim meet where you earned an official time. Also, the times need to have been achieved during a certain time period (this varies) so please don’t use a time that is too old. You can only enter events you qualify for, unless specified on the meet sheet. If you DQ at the meet or don’t attain the minimum qualifying time, and cannot prove your entered time, you might have to pay a fine or forfeit events. (The fine at our JOs is $100 per event.)
Away Meets
Swim meets in other areas (not San Diego-Imperial) usually require you to fill out their meet entry card which will look different than our cards. Sometimes you will mail your own card to the swim meet host for these meets, but more and more we are required to put them on disk. So please read the newsletter for instructions, and ask if you’re not sure! For away meets where we send an electronic entry, we must pay with one team check, so your check to cover meet fees would be payable to “Pacific Swim.”
Website for Official Times
We keep track of your swimmer’s official times for all sanctioned meets using an online database that you can easily access. To check times, go to www.psswim.com and select your team (Pacific Swim Team-CA). You can also look up times on the USA Swimming website: www.usaswimming.org. Novice results will not be on either of these websites, but we do keep a database for novice results, and you may request a printout of your swimmer’s times.
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