On Friday, November 17, 2023, we will be holding our annual Time Trial Meet at the Fitch Warrenton Aquatic and Recreation Center (WARF) at 800 Waterloo Road, Warrenton, VA 20186 across the street from Fauquier High School. Please read this entire post.
The main purposes of the meet are to:
- Establish baseline times for every swimmer against which we will measure progress during the season.
- Teach everyone our pre-meet routine, particularly our warm-up routine and how we show respect for our National Colors.
- Get our Meet Officials trained
Actions for Each Swimmer Prior to the Meet:
- Ensure you know your warm-up lane assignment.
- Ensure you know your heat and lane for each event that you are swimming. Either write it on your hand or have it recorded in some other fashion.
- Come to the pool dressed to swim so we can minimize locker room use with so many kids.
Time Trial Meet Entries:
- Here are our entries for the meet, by event and by name:
- And here is the Meet Program that shows your specific Heat and Lane Assignments:
- Warm-up Lane Assignments-2023 Time Trials
- Meet Program coming soon.
Event Timeline:
6:00 p.m. Stroke & Turn Training Clinic hosted by Richard Borneman and Charles Seltman
6:00 p.m. Dry Deck Set-up by Hank Konstanty, Deck Set-up by the Team Managers and Volunteers, Team Area Captains’ Meeting with Coach Koehr.
6:39 p.m. Swimmers start stretching on the tile in leisure pool, next to the competition pool. Arrive prior to that, put your bags in the team areas in the competition pool and then clear out to the leisure pool to minimize the disruption to the OCCS practice that is going on until 7:00 p.m.
6:59 p.m. Officials meeting on deck in the competition pool by the doors to the leisure pool
7:02 p.m. Demonstration of warm-up process by Captains
7:09 p.m. Timer’s meeting on deck in the competition pool by the doors to the leisure pool
7:10 p.m. Begin Warm-up Session 1
7:20 p.m. Begin Warm-up Session 2
7:35 p.m. Training on the Opening Prayer and the National Anthem
7:50 p.m. Time Trials Begins
Meet Timeline coming soon
Before 10:00 p.m. Projected End Time
Dry Deck Officials:
- Unlike normal Seton meets at the WARF, the Dry Deck Officials will set up under the scoreboard
Wet Deck Officials:
- The Referee (Mr. Seltman) and the Head official (Mr. Borneman) will be set up in front of the dry deck officials in a segregated area.
- The Stroke & Turn judges spread around the side and end of the pool
- Some of the judges are new and will be shadowing experienced judges as part of their training
Timers:
- We will operate with Head Timer Chris Condon and two (2) timers per lane
- One (1) timer will operate the CTS plunger and a Dolphin electronic stopwatch, and one (1) timer will be operating a CTS plunger.
- Timer lane assignments and a link to sign-up coming soon.
- Please sign up to be a Timer here.
Team Areas:
- We will establish six (6) Team Areas, each with assigned Captains.
- The team areas will be arranged around the perimeter of the pool from the Scoring station under the scoreboard to the Lifeguard room.
- Going clockwise around the pool starting at the Scoring Station:
- 6th and 7th Graders – Captains Madelyn Zadnik and Michael Brox
- 11th Graders – Captain Liam Halisky
- 12th Graders – Captain Luke Mantooth
- Trinity Meadow View – Aine Maloney
- 8th Graders – Captain Connor Koehr
- 10th Graders -Captain Clara Condon
- 9th Graders – Captain Haley Fifield
Warm-up:
- We will warm-up in two sessions with eight (8) or more swimmers per lane.
- Here are your warm-up Lane Assignments:
- We will warm-up in two sessions:
- Session I – 7:10 to 7:20 p.m.
- Session II – 7:20 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
National Anthem:
- How we handle the opening prayer and the National Anthem is very important to me.
- We will:
- Review why the National Anthem and our National Colors are so worthy of our respect.
- Learn how to stand at attention like a US Marine.
- Practice lining up for the prayer and the anthem
- Practice showing respect while the anthem is being sung.
Swimming Events:
There will be a few things about the way we run this meet that will be different than all of the rest of our meets:
- We will utilize a Clerk of the Course which will be located just to the right of the starting blocks behind the lanes closest to the bleachers.
- Swimmers will report to the Clerk of the Course a couple of heats prior to their event.
- This will not be a normal feature of our meets, but given the inexperience of so many of our swimmers and the limited space behind the blocks, we will do it for this meet only.
- Some of the Coaches will run the Clerk of the Course
- To help demonstrate the way our heats run, we are seeding this meet with the fastest heat first so that the younger kids can see how it is done.
- For the rest of our meets, we will run the fastest heat in each event last.
- For the 200 Freestyle, we will swim with up to three (3) swimmers per lane, each starting 10 seconds apart.
- We will time the event with stopwatches.
- This will never happen again this season.
- We will use the Clerk of the Course and flyover starts
One thing that will be the same in all of the rest of our meets this season is that we will be using Flyover Starts:
- When a heat finishes, that heat will remain in the water until the next heat has started over top of them (i.e., “Flyover Start”)
- Then the swimmers in the water will exit and return to their team area.
- As those swimmers are clearing the area behind the blocks and while other swimmers are still swimming in the water, the next heat will move from the Clerk of the Course to their place behind the blocks.
- This flow of swimmers will be repeated for each heat
What to Wear:
- Since we don’t have our team uniforms yet, please make sure that you have a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to wear while on deck.
- If you have a Seton Swim Cap, please wear it, otherwise – for this meet only – you can wear a different swim cap.
Restrooms:
- Given our very large numbers, please try to minimize their use by arriving at the pool with your suit on under your clothes.
- There is a family restroom outside the pool area at the bottom of the stairs for Coaches and Officials.
Spectators:
- Spectators are allowed in the bleachers!
- But you can see better if you are a volunteer on deck
- But you can see better if you are a volunteer on deck
- All results will be posted in near real-time on the Meet Mobile App under “Seton Time Trials 2023”
- We will post results for all Seton Meets on Meet Mobile so I’d suggest that it is worth downloading.
- You can find the App in the App Store under “Meet Mobile: Swim”
- We will not be live-streaming this meet.
Final Note from Coach Koehr:
- The Management of the WARF and the Town of Warrenton are generously allowing us to, once again, hold our annual Time Trials Meet at their facility. Let’s make sure we show respect for them and the other patrons of the pool, particularly the teams practicing prior to our meet.
- Please remember: “It’s not about good. It’s about better.”
- Just come and do the best you can, and we will spend the rest of the season learning to swim better.