USA Swimming has revised the B-standards for the Minneapolis Grand Prix and opened up registration to swimmers with those B-standards beginning today, October 11th, at noon Central Time.
See here for the new standards.
These new times are drastically slower than the original standards (those can be seen here in the standards that still apply to all of the other Grand Prixs). Times dropped as much as 5-6 seconds in 100 and 200 yard events, up to 24 seconds in the 400 IM and almost a minute in the 1650 freestyle.
This would seem to speak to the fact that with severely juiced-up “A” standards under the new qualifying system, USA Swimming didn’t get many inquiries from swimmers who had hit the mandatory times for early registration. Under the new qualifying procedure, with the meet a month away (November 9th-11th at the University of Minnesota) entries are now available to swimmers with “B” standards until the 600 swimmer cap is hit.
With this Grand Prix being the only one in the fall, and being held in yards in the middle of the college season, it tends to be more lightly-attended from the pro ranks anyway. We haven’t noticed many NCAA teams with this meet on their schedules thus far either, which is where the bulk of the country’s swimmers who have hit the standards compete. This would make sense, because it’s harder for a college coach to commit to these meets when there is uncertainty about qualifying standards or whether they will register early enough to fit under the 600 swimmer cap.
The new standards only apply to the Minneapolis Grand Prix, for now, and the B-standards remain at the tougher level for all of the other Grand Prixs.
Looks like the links are broken for the old time standards and for the new ones. Where else can we look?
Thanks for pointing that out Jo Ann. Unfortunately, it seems to be on USA Swimming’s side – I just tried clicking the link directly from their site, and got the same error. Will keep a look out for a new link.
Check new info posted:
http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/b2d19580-e359-4f33-b681-4529c0e65360/2012%20MN%20Meet%20Info%20Revised%20B_10-11-12%20Stds.pdf
Maybe the intent is to have smaller meets, less time at pool (similar to FINA meets?)
If I have to fly across the nation or drive 6 hours in my case, I’m okay with a slightly longer prelims session. BUT that is why there are A and B flights, you can get you NT out of there and rested for finals. It hasn’t been that long since there are group days and it wouldn’t hurt for the these elites (not to be confused with elitists) to deal like the rest of us do on a weekend to weekend basis. Those who are getting money from USA Swimming should be able to tolerate a few extra bodies for the money they make.
I’m all for making some of these meets a bit smaller, but this is too… Read more »
Last year SwimMAC hosted an “in between” session meet for regional athletes and for kids who wanted to travel with their clubs but didn’t make the UltraSwim cut. Cuts for the “in between” were slower than the actual GP meet. They were able to watch finals, see some fast swimming and get the gift bag, GP atmosphere etc. It was win-win. Hope that the same happens this year.
There are a number of problems with the A/B standards. The most obvious is that your A swimmers will actually get in to the meet and your B cut swimmers may or may not. Kind of hard to plan a trip for a group of swimmers (flights, hotels, etc) based on not knowing how many actually get in to the meet-and basing it on chance and last second announcements.
My guess is that most of the Grand Prixs will be poorly attended for this reason.
Maybe USA Swimming should communicate with the host before they make cut times. I think they need to take into consideration the time of the season that the meet is taking place in and also the region. Lets face it, the mid-west in November no less, is not what you would call the countries most ideal swimming region. It definitely isn’t like Santa Clara in June or Charlotte in May.
COME ON MAN
What a farce – I was already upset when they took so long to post the cuts, then I was heart broken when I had to break the hearts of two of my kids that had qualified…now I’m pretty upset they changed it, and I’m fuming that they waited this long!!!!
Not sure what USA is trying to do with these standards. I understand they want to make sure the meets aren’t over crowded, but potentially at the cost of local kids. We will certainly have to see how this all unfolds as the season progresses, but many teams may take these meets off their schedules if they are not viable for team travel. Raising the bar is one thing, but some local up and coming kids can’t make the meet, it is not as much of a draw and local swimmers are less willing to just come and watch in-season swims then be in prelims and come back to watch finals. That WAS the draw of the MNGP…
I think its the same mentality (wrong thinking) that many have about revising the Trials standards. The ‘big guns’ are whining. Being less inclusive, i thought, was the opposite of what USA Swimming was trying to accomplish
I wonder if they will run into this problem all winter until after NCAA’s? The cuts are…well…pretty darn fast!