SECTION 3

 

CONDUCT OF MEETS

 

A.    RULES

 

1.     All meets shall be conducted under current USA Swimming rules. The Referee of the meet shall be the final authority for the conduct of competition. Procedures stated in the meet information sheet, approved at the granting of the meet sanction, shall be the rules of the meet.

 

2.     All sanctioned competitions are required to have all “warm-up” sessions supervised and controlled using the standard warm up rules adopted by SNS. A complete copy of the warm up rules will be provided with each sanction.

 

3.     A electronic start system shall be provided for the starter, and a public address unit must be provided and so placed as to be heard clearly in the designated swimmer rest areas.

 

4.     Smoking and consumption of alcoholic beverages shall be prohibited in areas adjacent to the pool (on the deck, in bleachers, dressing rooms and swimmer rest areas).

 

5.     All animals except working assist animals are prohibited from the pool deck areas during swim meets.

 

6.     In “trails and finals” meets the finals may not begin less than one hour after the completion of the last preliminary or trial heat.

 

B.     MEET OPERATIONS

 

 

a.     A list of all swimmers entered in the meet must be sent to the SNS Registration Coordinator no later than 6:00 pm on the Monday prior to the first day of the meet. Failure to do so will result in a $50 fine to the meet host.

 

b.     The Registration Coordinator will notify the Meet Director of the names of all swimmers who are not properly registered prior to the first day of the meet.

 

c.     The Meet Director shall ensure that any swimmer who is not properly registered prior to the meet completes his or her registration prior to being allowed to swim in the meet.

 

 

a.     Consolidated Entry forms should be filed alphabetically by age group and kept at the seeding desk as a ready reference in case of dispute over an entry.

 

b.     Entry cards must be completely filled out and are used as timers’ cards, after being seeded and distributed to the swimmers. Correct club abbreviations should be used. (See Part V).

 

c.     Entrants without a current Registration Number on their entry cards must present a current Registration Card prior to competition. Any swimmer entering as “pending” or “applied for,” etc., will be verified with the Registration Coordinator prior to the meet and if validly pending, will be allowed to check-in and compete. Entrants not meeting this requirement must Register at the meet and the Meet Director shall provide blank application forms. A handling fee of $2.00 may be added to the Registration fee at the meet. Checks for the total fees shall be made payable to SNS. The application forms and fees shall be sent by the host club to the Registration Coordinator. If the handling fee was collected, it shall be rebated to the host club if the application forms and fees are received by the Registration Coordinator within three days of the last day of the meet. Any swimmer who registers at the meet, who asserts that he is already registered, may mark the application form by writing “Possible Duplicate” in the upper right corner of the form. When received, the Registration Coordinator will review the records and if the application is a duplicate, any fee paid will be refunded by mail.

 

All out-of-LSC swimmers must send a facsimile of their USA-S registration with their entries, or bring their cards to the meet. If unable to show proof of registration, the swimmer must register at the meet. If proof of prior USA-S registration is provided within 20 days after the date of the meet, the registration fee will be refunded.

 

 

 

 

a.     The referee may, at his discretion, if conditions warrant, apply the scratchdown rule on any day of the meet.

 

a.     Closing of check-in for the first four events shall be no more than 30 minutes before the scheduled time of the start of the meet.

b.     Close of check-in for subsequent events shall be no more than 30 minutes before the estimated time of the start of the first heat of the event.

 

a.     All classified meets shall be seeded on the deck.

 

b.     Relay seeding time must be submitted to the desk upon call by the meet management, this being not less than one hour before the first heat of each relay event. First and last names of competing relay swimmers, their ages, and their order of swimming shall be declared to the Clerk of Course immediately prior to the start of the relay heat in which such team is entered, and no changes will be permitted thereafter.

 

a.     Automatic or semi-automatic timing is recommended for all meets; under these conditions, a single back-up timer’s time is to be recorded on the swimmer’s time card.

 

b.     If automatic or semi-automatic timing is not available, the ballot system shall be used for judging places in all SNS sanctioned swim meets. Under the ballot system, three times shall be recorded on the swimmer’s time card and a judging system approved by the referee shall be used.

 

Attention is called to USA Swimming Rule and Regulations. The following procedure will be followed in SNS meets which are deck-seeded.

 

a.     In timed-finals meets there is no penalty for a swimmer who does not compete in an event. Exceptions as stated in USA Swimming Rules and Regulations.

 

b.     In meets holding trials and finals the above rule (a) shall apply to a swimmer failing to compete in a trial heat for which he has checked in.

 

c.     Any swimmer qualifying for a final in an individual event who fails to compete in that event shall be barred from further competition for the remainder of the meet except as noted in USA Swimming Rules and Regulations.

 

The following requirement shall be published in the Meet Information Sheet:

 

Each team shall, by the entry deadline, provide the meet director or designee a list of officials who have agreed to represent that team during the meet, in accordance with the following table:

 

 

 

One half-hour before the scheduled start of each session, the meet referee shall conduct an inventory of officials, and shall compare the number of entries against the number of officials present representing each team. Those teams who have not provided sufficient officials shall have all their swimmers treated as “time-only swimmers” in all aspects of that session.

 

The following table defines the minimum number of officials required to operate a sanctioned meet in Sierra Nevada Swimming (trainees do not count as officials for these purposes):

 

 

Minimum Officials for Short Course Venues
Lanes	4	6	8	10
Referee / Starter	3	3	3	3
Stroke & Turn	3	5	5	8

 

 

Minimum Officials for Long Course Venues
	Single Ended				Double Ended
Lanes	4	6	8	10	4	6	8	10
Referee / Starter	3	3	3	3	6	6	6	6
Stroke & Turn	6	8	8	10	8	10	10	12

 

 

An Administrative Referee is required for all meets with trials and finals, all long-course, double-ended meets, and meets with concurrent sessions in two ends of the same pool.

 

 

If there are not sufficient officials to conduct the meet at the planned number of lanes, the number of seeded lanes shall be reduced to meet the number of officials present. If the minimum number of officials cannot be achieved, the session shall be canceled.

 

C.    MEET RESULTS

 

1.     The following must be sent to the Records Coordinator within 5 days of the close of the meet.  They can be sent by email or by first class mail (not certified) or hand-delivered.

 

a.     One copy of all meet results (complete with team scores where applicable and separated by age-groups’ 8-U, 1O-U, 11 -12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18, & 19-Up) including meet dates and sanction number.  Results may be sent in one of the following ways:

 

(1)   By email in a zipped SDIF file.

 

(2)   Saved to a diskette as an SDIF file.

 

(3)   Completely filled out individual event (timer’s) cards for those swims attaining a SNRT or faster time, if the meet was not computerized or was run using a program that cannot produce SDIF files.

 

b.     Completely filled out relay event (timer’s) cards for all relay swims. Relay cards must include the name, age, and USA-S registration number for each swimmer if the meet was not computerized or was run using a program that cannot produce SDIF files. If the meet was run from a computer program that can produce SDIF files the names of the relay swimmers must be included in the results file in the correct order of swim. Where available, the results file must also be sent with relay splits included.

 

2. One copy of all meet results must be distributed or mailed to every club submitting entries in the meet within 10 days from conclusion of the meet. Individuals who request copies of the results may be charged a fee not to exceed $5.00.

 

3.     Results must list first and last name of swimmer, age, club affiliation and time. (Include both trial and final time for T & F meets.) First and last name and age of each swimmer on a relay team must be listed if the time is a national age group reportable time or a Junior National qualifying time. (See instructions included with Meet Directors report forms.)

 

4.     Swimmers must be listed in descending order of time - fastest to slowest. Results shall be submitted with girls first, 8-under through 17-18, then boys, 8-under through 17-18.

 

 

1.     The Meet Director shall send a copy of the final results to the SNS Records Coordinator within 5 days of the completion of the competition. In the absence of prior arrangements to delay submission of results, failure to submit meet results within 5 days will result in a fine of $100 to the host team.

 

2.     The financial report form received with the sanction must be completed and sent to the Finance Vice Chair within 10 days after the meet. Failure to submit the required reports and fees due will be grounds for denying future sanctions. If the financial report is not received within 40 days after the completion of the meet, the host team will be fined $100, and for every 30-day period thereafter that the report is delinquent, the team will be fined $50.

 

3.     Two checks must be sent payable to Sierra Nevada Swimming to include:

 

a.     One check to the SNS General Account in the amount equal to the sum of ($0.25 x the total number of individual entries) plus ($1.00 x the total number of relay team entries.)

 

b.     A second check to the SNS travel account in the amount equal to the sum of ($0.75 x the total number of individual entries) plus ($3.00 x the total number of relay team entries.)

 

4.     The head referee shall send a copy of the Head Referee's Report to the meet director and the SNS Officials Chair within 10 days from the completion of the competition. Failure to submit this report within 10 days will be grounds for submitting this infraction to the Officials Chair. This report can be emailed, mailed or hand delivered to the SNS Officials Chair.

 

5.     The meet director shall send a copy of the Meet Director's Report to the host club, head referee and the SNS Officials Chair within 10 days from the completion of the competition. Failure to submit this report within 10 days will be grounds for denying future sanctions. This report can be emailed, mailed or hand delivered to the SNS Officials Chair.