Swim Parent’s Guide to State Qualifying Times and Meet Information
Below, I will walk you through how to find your swimmer’s best times and compare them to the
Montana State meet entry qualifying times. Take this sheet with you to your computer.
Swimming has two separate seasons, Short Course (meets held in 25 yard short pools) and Long
Course (meets held in 50 meter long pools). Short Course is the season we are swimming now
Sept. – early March. The 8 year and under kids get to swim the short 25 yard races during short
course season. The times you will be looking for in this season are all tracked in 25 yard course
times. The long course season goes from April through early August.
WEBSITES:
The Barracuda website is www.bozemanbarracudas.org . On the lower left side of the home
page the Barracuda site has links to Montana and USA Swimming sites.
Montana Swimming to http://montana.usswim.net/
USA Swimming http://www.usaswimming.org/.
I use Swim Connection http://www.swimconnection.com/mt/ to get best times and see meet
and top results in Montana. Save these sites as favorites in your browser.
SWIMMER BEST TIMES: Go to the Swim Connection site and register and log in. It’s free
and allows you to see more information. In the menu on top select “SWIMMERS”. Enter your
last name and then select your swimmer from the list. Under the Course column, select 25Y
(yards) for our season. Your swimmer’s best times for each event will be listed. Note under the
S column the B, BB, A… times listed. Times get faster from B to AAAA. I like to copy the
times section out of this webpage and paste it into a spreadsheet to track best times against State,
Sectional and Zones qualifying times, updating it after each meet. Example below:
HALL, LAINA N
F
10.1
Printable Best Times
BOZ
registered
Best Times
25 Yards Course only / No conversion / Current Season Results ONLY
Next Goal
Event
Time
C
S
Age
S
50 Free
31.48
25Y
A
10.1
AA
100 Free
1:08.33
25Y
AA
10.1
50 Back
36.35
25Y
AA
100 Back
1:18.71
25Y
A
200 Back
2:55.09
25Y
50 Breast
44.30
25Y
100 Breast
1:31.94
25Y
200 Breast
3:31.33
25Y
50 Fly
33.59
25Y
100 Fly
1:17.59
100 IM
1:15.99
Time
How Far
Secs
%
30.89
0.59
1.9%
AAA
1:05.39
2.94
4.3%
10.1
AAA
34.59
1.76
4.8%
10.1
AA
1:18.29
0.42
0.5%
10.1
BB
2:48.89
6.20
3.5%
BB
10.1
A
41.99
2.31
5.2%
A
10.1
AA
1:28.89
3.05
3.3%
10.1
B
3:26.39
4.94
2.3%
AA
10.1
AAA
33.39
0.20
0.6%
25Y
AA
10.1
AAA
1:16.49
1.10
1.4%
25Y
AA
10.1
AAA
1:15.19
0.80
1.1%
STATE QUALIFYING TIMES: For 9 years and older, a swimmer must have at least one BB
time to qualify to represent the Barracudas at the state meet in Butte, February 25th-27th. A
swimmer may also swim in any additional events in which he has achieved a B time or faster.
Eight years and under qualifying times are not indicated in Swim Connection but are listed
separately in the Montana Swimming website under MEETS in the TIME STANDARDS
column labeled 8U (8 and under). The 9 years and older standards are listed as STD in the same
column. I have attached the qualifying times for your convenience. Be sure to compare to the
25 yard times in the standards, not the meter times for this short course season.
When we get closer to the State meet, you can check out the competition by going into the Swim
Connection website http://www.swimconnection.com/mt/ and selecting “TOP RESULTS”.
Athletes are ranked for each event fastest to slowest. You can see where your swimmer ranks
within the state and use this as a tool to select his or her best events for state.
The USA Swimming website http://www.usaswimming.org/ has most official times which may
be useful as you move up to higher levels of competition such as IMX, Sectionals or Western
Region Zones. Occasionally, there are some altitude conversions (on 200 yard or longer races)
USA Swimming also posts times swum at meets outside of Montana that may not appear in
Swim Connection.
TO CHECK MEET INFO: Occasionally, you may need details about a meet such as the
schedule of all Montana meets, a particular meet’s pool address, hotel information or a warm-up
schedule. You may just wish to confirm your swimmer is registered. Click on the Montana
Swimming link in the Barracuda site or go to http://montana.usswim.net/ . Select MEETS.
Notice there is a CONTRACT column and a RESULTS column. To find out meet details like
location, awards, potential hotel information etc., scroll down to the desired meet and look at the
meet’s contract in PDF or Word format. To check to see the events your child is entered to
swim, a PSYCH sheet appears about 2 or 3 days before the meet in the RESULTS column. The
PSYCH sheet will list all swimmers entered in the meet with their seed times (fastest to slowest)
in event order, although no heats will be assigned yet. I always go into the PSYCH sheet before
a meet to ensure my swimmer is entered and the events are what I expected. Our coaches are
great about communicating WARM-UP schedule times but these are also listed under the
RESULTS column. Once the results are official, results are posted in event order under the
RESULTS column in the Montana Swimming website. Results can also be found in a more user
friendly format, sorted by age in the Swim Connection website.
Attached are the Long Course State Qualifying times for your reference.
If you have questions, feel free to e-mail Coach Jade or Shelly at [email protected] or email me at [email protected]. Alternately, look for any of us veteran swim parents on the
pool deck during practice or at a meet. We’d be glad to answer questions or help you out!
Best Regards,
Kris Hall (McKinley 13 and Laina 11)