Concerning Qualifying for Divisionals and Leagues

When I do personal best ribbons (we had 40 PB at Copley which is pretty good for 60 swimmers!) I only count our YMCA dual meets (not YMCA invitationals, USA meets or last chance meets) as everyone has the opportunity to attend and should attend our YMCA dual meets. These are the times I also use for determining relays for our dual meets and Divisionals and Leagues. As our team has grown, we have come to make our Presidential Invitational a mandatory participation meet - meaning all Neptune parents are required to work, therefore all Neptune swimmers have the opportunity to compete at this meet as well. So I have included the Presidential Invitational on your Personal Best sheet and you can earn PB ribbons at this event. In doing so, it only makes sense that results of this meet can also be used to determine future relays.

Now the issue at hand. Divisional relays have been determined based on the above and will be posted on Tuesday. We swim Divisionals in two weeks. Know that a person that swims in Divisionals (whether on a relay or not) is eligible to swim on a League qualifying relay. The League permits this because a lot can change in a month’s time (from when Divisionals takes place to when Leagues takes place) including illness and injury as well as improvement in a swimmer’s time. So… at Divisionals, if your relay qualifies for Leagues, it will probably be the same group of swimmers in the relay that swims at Leagues. However, since I will allow times earned at the Presidential Invitational (which takes place two weeks after Divisionals) to determine future relays, only after the Presidential Invitational will League qualifying relays be finalized including who will swim on the A, B or C relay in each age group at Leagues if we are lucky enough to qualify an A and B or even a C relay. Just as for Zones, when a group qualifies a relay for Zones, it does not absolutely guarantee that those same four swimmers will swim that relay at Zones. The team has qualified a relay; who swims on it is determined based on times earned throughout the season.

If our goal as a team is to do our best at a meet, and to be fair to all relay swimmers, I need to send the fastest combination of relay swimmers to do so. Also by allowing Presidential Invitational times to count, I hope it will encourage swimmers to continue working hard up to the Presidential Invitational and through Leagues. I have had experiences in the past where a swimmer qualifies for a League relay and then disappears from practice for a month expecting to show up at Leagues and be on that relay. Not only is that unfair to the other swimmers on that relay; it hurts the team. So, at Divisionals whether you qualify to swim an individual event at Leagues or not, keep working hard and swim strong at the Presidential Invitational to see if you can earn a spot on a League qualifying relay. And to everyone swimming at Divsionals, Sunday, February 3 - work hard these next two weeks as we prepare to take on Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake Co. Central, Lake Co. East, Hillcrest and North Canton. As a team, we want to qualify as many swimmers as possible in both individual events as well as relays so we can take a strong team to Leagues, Saturday March 1, 2008! And remember – if we win Divisionals – you get to throw the coaches in the pool!