2024 Colonies Zone Short Course Yards Championship

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Registration Schedule

This competition is limited to the first 500 entrants.
Currently there are 290 entrants.

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Post-Meet Reports:
Event Results - All Sessions
Individual Results by Club
Record-Breaking Swims by Event
Record-Breaking Swims by Club
Individual Point Totals by Age Group
Club Point Totals by Team Size
Meet Program / Heat Sheets
Disqualifications Summary
No-Show Report
Results also on SwimPhone & Meet Mobile

Pre-Meet Reports:
Athlete List by Age
Athlete List by Name
Athlete List by Club
Clubs by Name
Clubs by Size
Entries by Name
Entries by Club
Entries by Age
Meet Timeline - Estimated
Psych Sheets by Age Group
Psych Sheets by Seed Time

Online & Paper Forms:
Relay Online-Entry Portal
Relay Deck-Entry Form
Split Notification Form

References:
USMS National Records (website)
USMS National Records 04-18-2024 (PDF)

Friday, April 19 – Session #1

• 2:00pm:
  • warm-up opens
  • relay online entries close
  • relay deck entries open
• 2:15pm: check-in closes
• 3:00pm: session starts

Saturday, April 20 – Session #2

• 8:00am: warm-up opens
• 8:15am: 500 Free check-in closes
• 9:00am session starts

Saturday, April 20 – Session #3

• 8:00am: warm-up opens
• 10:00am: check-in & Saturday relay entries close
• 10:45am: session starts (~20 minutes after 500 free ends)

Sunday, April 21 – Session #4

• 8:00am: warm-up opens
• 8:15am: 400 IM check-in closes
• 9:00am: session starts

Sunday, April 21 – Session #5

• 8:00am: warm-up opens
• 9:15am: check-in & Sunday relay entries close
• 10:00am: session starts (~20 minutes after the 400 IM ends)
• ~3:00pm: awards ceremony after the 800 free relay ends

 
FACILITY: The Jeff Rouse Swim & Sport Center is an 8-year-old, state-of-the-art, 76,000-square-foot facility that houses a 50-meter competition pool with a movable bulkhead, ample deck space, 800 deck-accessible spectator seats, a 25-yard recreation pool, and a heated therapy pool. The water temperature is maintained at 80-81 degrees in the competition pool and 87-88 in the recreation pool. This facility also houses a swim shop, group exercise studio, fitness center, basketball court, cycling studio, and full-service café with TVs and Wi-Fi. There is wheelchair access to the common areas, locker rooms, and pool deck, and dedicated wheelchair areas by the stands.

POOL SETUP: The meet organizers plan to configure the LCM pool with the following SCY competition courses: one bulkhead course and one fixed-wall course on Friday and just the bulkhead course on Saturday and Sunday. (The organizers may opt to use both courses for competition all three days.) Each course has eight 25-yard, 8.5-foot-wide competition lanes, at a depth of 6' 7" to 12' 6" with overflow gutters and non-turbulent lane lines. This configuration will provide 6 continuous warm-up lanes on Friday in the recreation pool and 14 on Saturday and Sunday across both pools. The starting blocks will not have adjustable track-start wedges or backstroke ledges.
 
POOL CERTIFICATION & TIMING SYSTEM: The length of the fixed-wall and bulkhead competition courses are in compliance and on file with USMS in accordance with articles 105.1.7 and 106.2.1, but the bulkhead course is subject to length confirmation. Colorado Timing System with automatic primary timing, semiautomatic secondary timing, and manual stopwatch tertiary timing. The electronic scoreboard has split-screen capability for dual courses. Times recorded in the fixed-wall course will be eligible for USMS record and Top 10 consideration; the eligibility of times recorded in the bulkhead course will be contingent on verification of bulkhead placement.
 
VA LMSC Chair Caycee Buscaglia, Colonies Zone Vice Chair & DV Chair Jeremy Gross, PV Chair Brett LaPlante, Colonies Zone Chair & NE Officer Douglas Sayles, VA Officers Heather & Chris Stevenson, NEChair J ason Weis.

Meet Director: Douglas Sayles | colonies@usms.org | (401) 633-5756
Volunteer Coordinator: Caycee Buscaglia | vachair@usms.org | (804) 677-8859
Meet Referee: Bob Rustin | brustin55@gmail.com | (804) 387-8736

Officials Wanted: Certified officials will be compensated. If interested, please email your certification, session availability, and contact info to Bob Rustin.

Volunteers Wanted: Coaches, teammates, friends, family, college and high school students may volunteer to time or help out. Clubs or organizations that provide a group of volunteers may be compensated. To sign up to volunteer, click here for the Signup Genius form or contact Caycee Buscaglia.
 
ENTRIES:

• Online Only (no paper entries): https://bit.ly/colonies-scychamps2024
• Event Schedule: Scroll to the bottom of this page to view the Order of Events.
• Entries Open: Wednesday, January 31, 2024
• Entry Deadline (updated April 9): The final entry deadline has been extended until Sunday, April 14, 2024, at 11:59 PM. Entries for any or all events/sessions may close early, without advance notice, upon reaching ~500 swimmers or meet timeline limits.
• Entry Limits:
  • Friday: 1 individual event (either the 1000 or 1650 Free).
  • Saturday: 6 individual events plus 2 relay events.
  • Sunday: 6 individual events plus 3 relay events (1 non-scoring).
  • Event caps: 1000 Free ~ 104 entries, 1650 Free ~ 104 entries, 500 Free ~ 160 entries, 400 IM ~ 96 entries. The meet director may add or adjust event caps as needed to manage the meet timeline.
• Entry Fees: Regular entry fee = $45 meet fee + $9 per individual event. Late entries, if allowed, will incur an additional $20 surcharge. Entry fees are nonrefundable. Your credit card will be charged by “DVMASTERS LMSC.”
  Updated April 9: College Club Swimming members who have purchased a $25 CCS-USMS bridge membership may receive a meet-entry discount code by contacting colonies@usms.org. It takes ~24 hours for bridge membership IDs to be assigned — purchase by April 11 if you plan to enter the meet.
• Changing Events: You cannot change events after submitting your entry.
• Adding Events: You may add events while entries are open for a fee of $9 per event by emailing colonies@usms.org.

RELAYS:

• Relay entries will open after individual entries close.
• No relay fee, but swimmers must be registered for at least one individual event.
• Swimmers should indicate their relay availability during meet registration.
• Clubs are encouraged to enter their relays online via the meet registration system. Alternately, the paper relay entry form will be accepted on deck.
• Relay entry directions and deadlines will be posted below after individual entries close.
• Swimmers cannot swim on both a same-sex relay and a mixed relay for the same event.
• All four swimmers on the relay must be affiliated with the same club in their respective USMS member records.
• Changes to relay entries will be allowed at the meet. Swimmers may only change the names or swim order on the relay card before swimming the event.
• The 800 Free Relay will be non-scoring and may be limited to one or two combined heats for record and Top Ten eligibility.

Relay entries are free! We will accept relay entries online via this website from April 15 until 2pm on Friday, April 19, after which we will accept paper relay entries on deck until 10am on Saturday, April 20, and until 9:15am on Sunday, April 21. Online entries are more efficient, so we prefer that one person from each club enter all their club's relays online. That person need not be entered in the meet but must be affiliated with that club in their USMS member record.
 

1. Click the blue "Register Relays Online Now!" button at the top or bottom of this page.
2. Input your USMS membership credentials and verify your address, email, etc.
3. Bypass the biographical page. There should be no edits needed here.
4. On the next page, click an event to see your club's swimmers and start building an entry for that event.
5. You need not designate multiple entries as A, B, C, etc. The software will do it.
6. Enter the relay's estimated seed time and select four swimmers in the order they will swim.
7. Continue this process until you have entered all your relay teams/events.
8. Proceed to the review page and click to finalize and submit your relay entries.
9. Changes allowed! You can edit or append your relay entries online before 2pm on Friday, April 19. During the meet, you can change the names or swim order in an entry on deck by editing the relay card before that event takes place.
    

ELIGIBILITY: Members aged 18 or older of U.S. Masters Swimming or another World Aquatics member organization. Age is determined by the swimmer’s age on April 21, 2024, except 18-year-olds must be of age on April 19.

SWIMMERS WITH DISABILITIES: Athletes with disabilities are welcome. Before competing, please notify the meet director and meet referee of any desired accommodations.

RULES: 2024 USMS Rules & Regulations apply. This meet will use dive-over starting. If you want more time to exit the pool, please notify the meet referee in advance.

TEAM AFFILIATION: Your meet entry must match the club affiliation in your USMS member record. You cannot change your club affiliation after competing in an event at the meet. Unattached (UC) swimmers cannot compete in relays or score points for a team. If you have questions about your USMS registration or competition eligibility, contact your LMSC’s membership coordinator or email colonies@usms.org.

ONLINE CHECK-IN REQUIRED: All events require positive check-in online via SwimPhone. Check-in for each session will open the preceding day at noon. To check in, click here.

Check-in will close at 2:15 PM for the Friday session and at 8:15 AM for the first event on Saturday (500 Free) and Sunday (400 IM). Check-in for the weekend's remaining events will close 45 minutes before the estimated start of the 50 Free on Saturday and the 50 Fly on Sunday. An estimated events timeline and the specific check-in times for Saturday's and Sunday's later events will be posted to the meet website after meet entries close.

SEEDING:

• Timed finals, deck seeded from entry times after check-in closes. Entries without seed times will not be accepted.
• The 1650 Free will be seeded fastest to slowest; all other events will be seeded slowest to fastest.
• For the 1000 & 1650 Free on Friday, women’s and men’s heats will run concurrently in separate courses.
  Updated April 13: Heats of the 1000 & 1650 Free will run in the same course and be mixed (men & women combined).
• Women’s, men’s, and mixed relays may be swum in combined heats.
• The meet director or meet referee can change seed times that are obviously incorrect based on previous performances.

WARM-UP/COOL-DOWN: All lanes in the main and recreational pools will open for warm-up at 2 p.m. Friday and at 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Competition lanes will close ~10 minutes before each session’s first event and will open for ~15 minutes on Saturday after the 500 Free and on Sunday after the 400 IM. Non-competition lanes — 6 in the recreation pool all three days and 8 in the main pool Saturday and Sunday — will remain open during all sessions and for 15 minutes after each day’s final event. Swimmers must enter warm-up lanes FEET FIRST except in designated one-way sprint lanes.
 
TRAVEL NOTE: When planning your itinerary, please account for potential traffic in the greater Washington DC area.

SPLIT REQUESTS: All initial 1000-yard splits in the 1650 Free and all relay leadoff splits (first 50 of 200 relay, first 100 of 400 relay, first 200 of 800 relay) will be recorded as automatic official splits. Official split requests for other distances or events must be submitted to the meet admin table using the Split Notification Form.

For backstroke events, you must submit the form and notify the meet referee of your intent to record an initial split time before swimming that event. For other events, you must submit the form before the end of the meet; the meet staff will notify the meet referee of each split request in compliance with USMS Rule 103.18.1(B)(1).

RECORD-BREAKING SWIMS: Swimmers who may break a USMS record should notify the meet referee before that event so an additional backup timer can be assigned to that lane.

REPORTS: Meet information, entry lists, psych and heat sheets, timelines, and results will be posted to the meet website, SwimPhone, and Meet Mobile. Times recorded at this meet are not official until they are posted to the USMS meet results database.

SCORING: For individual events, the first 16 places in each age group will be scored by sex as follows: 17-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points. Points will be doubled for relay events, excepting the non-scoring 800 Free Relay.

AWARDS:

• Brief ceremony after Sunday’s final event to bestow awards to:
  • Colonies Zone Champion banner for the top-scoring team overall.
  • Plaques for the top-two scoring teams in the Large, Medium, Small, and Squad divisions (sizes TBD based on swimmers entered in the meet).
    Updated April 15: Large 26+ swimmers, Medium 13 to 25, Small 4 to 12, Squad 1 to 3.
  • Updated April 9: Plaques for the top-three scoring College Clubs.
  • Meet towels for the top female and male scorer in each age group.
• Awards available on deck:
  • Ribbons for the top-three male and female finishers in each event by age group.
  • Rubber ducks for heat winners.
  • Certificates with event results stickers for each individual and relay event.
• Team & individual results, points, and potential record-breaking swims will be posted on the meet web site.

TEAM BANNERS: Please bring your team’s banner and use painter’s tape or Command hooks when hanging it. Do not use duct tape or other adhesives that leave residue on the walls.

HOSPITALITY & CONCESSIONS: There will be a complimentary hospitality area for meet staff, officials, and volunteers. Swimmers and spectators can purchase food and drinks onsite at the full-service café. The shopping complex across the street includes Manhattan Pizza, Publix, Table Kitchen (Asian), Chipotle, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Cinnaholic, and WaWa, and there is a Chic-fil-A a few miles away. Glass containers are prohibited in the pool area.

MERCHANDISE: Meet t-shirts (soft, stretchy, longsleeve, UPF 50+, microfiber performance polyester) will be sold online for $20 via the event registration system for pickup at the meet and a limited quantity may also be for sale on deck. Cash and Venmo accepted onsite. Size chart.
 
INTERNET ACCESS: There is no public Wi-Fi onsite. To access the Internet, use your smart phone's or tablet's mobile cellular connection..

DIRECTIONS: Jeff Rouse Swim & Sport Center, 1600 Mine Rd, Stafford, VA 22554

From I-95: Take exit 140, Courthouse Road. Go west on Courthouse Road (right turn if coming from the north, left turn if coming from the south). Go approximately 1 mile and turn right on Mine Road. The JRSSC entrance is the first turn on your left.

From Route 1: Turn onto Courthouse Road/630 (right turn if coming from the north, left turn if coming from the south). Go approximately 1.8 miles and turn right on Mine Road. JRSSC entrance is the first turn on your left.

CONDITIONS: Every participant must sign the USMS Participant Waiver during the online registration process. By entering this meet you permit the full use of your name and image, including photo and video recordings, for promotional purposes and in any broadcast, telecast, or other accounts of this event.
 

Note: If paying by credit card, your credit card statement will reflect a charge from "DVMASTERS LMSC."