CHAMPS INFO! CHAMPS INFO! CHAMPS INFO!

Hi Everyone!!!

So, our champs meet is coming up and many of you have started to ask questions about it! We have some first-timers at this year’s champs meet which is really exciting. Our men are defending champs this year (they placed first in the “large team” division last year) and our women placed second to Erie in the large team division so we’ll be looking for a first this year, Wave ladies!

Here is some info for you (with more emails to follow as the date gets closer!):

• To qualify for Champs, you must have competed in at least 3 regular meets throughout the season. THIS INCLUDES THE 1650 MAIL-IN MEET, so if you’ve only competed in two meets but did the 1650, you qualify.
• The deadline to sign up for Champs will be Friday, March 5 (which is NEXT FRIDAY!!!). Joe B. will get registration up on the website soon and will let you know when it’s up (thanks so much Joe!).
• The Champs meet is on April 10 and 11. Some people drive up on Friday night and some people wait until Saturday morning to drive up—it’s totally up to you and depends on what events you are swimming on Saturday. We usually make group dinner plans for anyone coming up on Friday night.
• The cost is $20.00 per swimmer, which includes the Banquet and all of your events. The Banquet is on Saturday night, usually around 6pm. The banquet is where you will get your Iron Person, High Point, Marathon, etc. awards. There is a buffet dinner which our team is in charge of and we are in the process of planning.
• If you want to bring a guest to the banquet, the cost is $18.00 per guest. Children are $10.00.
• I’ll need your champs payment the minute you sign up. It’s very important that you pay this right away as our team account will never be able to cover the cost for the meet.
• You can bring your kids to the meet if you want. There is a diving pool where kids can get in and play. We also use it as a warm-up/warm-down pool. The Holiday Inn also has some kid-friendly amenities like ping pong tables, a pool, etc.
• I’ll email more information about warm-up times, etc. as the date gets closer. The meet runs similar to regular meets for both days (Sat and Sun). The 1000 free is the first event on the first day and the 500 free is the first event on the second day, so if you’re not swimming either of those events, you’re not going to have to get up too early (and if you are swimming those events, you’ll have time for a quick nap before the “regular” meet starts!).
• You can swim 7 individual events plus 2 relays. You just need to sign up for your individual events; Janet and I will put the relays together and email them out well before meet day.
• There is no limit to the number of events you can swim in one day, so you can do all 7 events on one day if you’d like!
• We’d love to have you for both days of the champs meet, but if you can only come for one day, that’s ok too—sign up for 7 events on that day if you’re up for it!
• We’ll likely be in the large team division again for both our men and women. Our division is based on the number of people who sign up for the champs meet. So for example, even if we technically have the largest team, if only 2 men and 2 women from our team sign up for Champs, we would likely be in the small team division. Last year, I think we took about 21 people to champs, half men, half women.
• Our men’s team and our women’s team compete separately. So, further to the example above, if we had 12 men come to champs but only 2 women, our men would likely be in the large team division and our women would be in the small team division.
• So, for the Champs meet, you’re competing against people in your age group, but also competing against the teams in our category. If there are 3 people in your age group swimming in one of your events, and 2 of them are competing in another division (say, the medium and small divisions), and you take 3^rd place, you get the points for 3^rd place, even though you took first place in our division.
• Coordinate with people in your age group!!!! We don’t want to be competing with each other in the same age group/same events, and truly, we’d like to cover as many events in each age group as possible. So, if there are two other people in your age group, talk about what events each of you wants to swim and spread yourselves apart among all of the events. Even if you’re swimming something that’s not your best event, it’s better to have someone in the event than to scratch it completely (and you never know what events other teams are going to sign up for in your age group so you may take a first when you never expected it!!). If you’re not sure who else is in your age group, let me know and I’ll tell you.

LODGING INFO!

• The Holiday Inn is the host hotel this year. The phone number for the hotel is 814-226-8850. The rate is $59.00 per night and they have agreed to hold that rate until March 10, so if you know you are coming to champs, make your reservation now!! I will be making mine today.
• If you would like a roommate for the weekend, let me know and I’ll try to pair you with someone else from the team who needs a roommate.
• There will be a continental breakfast each morning (Sat and Sun) from 7am-9am.
• They have a nice bar area where our team arranged a happy hour for the league last year. We’ll do that again this year for Sat night before the banquet.

WE NEED A THEME!

• Last year, we all wore t-shirts that said “I’m With Stupid” to the meet. We also did a Hawaiian theme for the champs banquet. We need to come up with another theme for this year, so email us all with your ideas and then we’ll vote (no idea is too crazy or silly, trust me…).

EVENT LIST!

Here is the list of events, in order:

Saturday, April 10:

1000 free

200 medley relay (there are no mixed relays at champs since men and women compete separately)

100 free

200 fly

25 back

100 breast

50 free

200 back

50 breast

200 im

25 fly

Sunday, April 11:

500 free

200 free relay

100 im

200 breast

50 fly

100 back

25 free

100 fly

50 back

200 free

25 breast

400 im

Alright, I think that’s enough for now. Let me know what questions you have. It’s a lot of information!! I’ll send some follow up emails once I get a good list of questions from people, so please ask your questions if you have them!!! (Give me a day or so to get back to you though since I’ve been piled up with emails lately!!!). Here’s to another great champs meet!!

Jamie