How Will Proposed YMCA Changes Effect Rural Swim Teams (such as Jersey Shore)? Part II

Pennsylvania YMCA Swimming is looking at different ways to expand greater diversity and opportunity for swimmers. They are looking at several options including new events, qualifying areas, number of heats, etc. 

This is Part II in looking at proposed YMCA changes for the upcomng season and how swimmers qualify for States.  Part I looked at the new districts. In the past, there were two districts (East and West) where the 12 fastest swimmers from the east met up with the 12 fastest swimmers in the west to face off at YMCA States for each event (except the relays where it was the top nine).  Below is the proposed qualifying ideas.



The District Championship meets will continue as the sole-qualifying meet for the State
Championship meet. Progression from Districts to States will be as follows:

• In events with 4 heats at the State Meet each District will send 1heat. An additional heat will be chosen at large from among the 3 districts, using the fastest times achieved at the District meets.
• As an example, for 2013 at Penn State, in a 6 lane pool, each event will have 6 swimmers from each District, plus the next 6 fastest from across the 3 districts.
• In events with 3 heats at the State Meet, each District will send 1 heat. In the case that a district fails to qualify an entire heat for the State meet, the remaining spots will be filled using the fastest times from the other districts.

The next blog posting will explore the events with 4 heats vs events with 3 heats