BBA Meet Information and Meet Entry Process

Meet Information

BBA offers 2 – 3 meets per month for swimmers at different levels to gain as much competitive swimming experience as possible and to achieve event time standards for championship meets towards the end of season; ; plan your schedule accordingly to attend these meets.

BBA Meet Schedule and DUE DATE  for short/long course season will be posted on BBA website at the beginning of each short/long course season.

Check the BBA website for the Team’s Meet schedule and decide which team meets are appropriate for the swimmer being entered. 

Check the level of the meet (A, B, or C), and the date of the meet.  If swimmers are unsure as to whether a meet is appropriate for them, they should speak to their coaches. 

Each Meet information is posted on the BBA website anywhere between 6 weeks to 2 months before the meet is scheduled. 

Book mark this link for BBA Meet Schedule

http://www.bbaswim.org/meets/200910BBAschedule.htm

On BBA home page, you can also click on the link Meet Sheets Due to go to the meet schedule page.

Type of Meets / Time Standards

Meet is setup with time standards and swimmers can only enter events with corresponding time achievements.

A, B, C Meets:

Michigan Swimming classifies swimmers into three ability levels by the use of time standards labeled A, B, and C.

“A” the fastest, “B” is the next fastest and “C’ includes everything slower than “B”.

The A and B standards are “faster than or equal to” standards and the C standard is a “slower than” standard.

Examples: In a “B” meet, all of the swimmers in a given event will have achieved times equal to or better than the B time standard, but slower than the A time standard.

In an “A” meet, all swimmers must have achieved the “A” standard or better. In an “A, B” meet all of the swimmers must have achieved the B standard or better (that is, “A” swimmers may also attend).

An “A, B, C” meet is open to all swimmers.

The A, B, C time standards used in MS meets are unique to Michigan. These time standards may be adjusted from year-to-year to reflect the anticipated number of swimmers in each ability level. Time standards are available on the Michigan Swimming and BBA website at the beginning of the short course season (September).

Swim-Your-Own-Age Meets (SYOA):

­Swimmers compete only against swimmers the same age.

INDY Circle City Classic Meet (BB)

Indy is a big, fun, out-of-town meet for BBA swimmers. The IU Natatorium has hosted many Olympic Trials, central Mega Zone Championships and many other National meets. All swimmers with achieved BB time are encouraged to attend this meet.   

The time standard used by INDY is National BB time and swimmers are required to provide proof of time if swimmers do not achieve the event time standard at the meet.

Michigan Mile

The Michigan Mile is a meet designed to encourage swimmers to participate in distance freestyle events. Although referred to as the “mile” there are two short course distances that may be offered (1000 yards and 1650 yards) and two long course distances (800 meters and 1500 meters).

Championship Meets

District ( < Q2)

It is a meet designed to allow swimmers an opportunity to qualify for the next higher level of meets, i.e. the “Junior Olympics” and/or the “State Championship” meets. As such, a swimmer cannot enter individual events that they already have achieved Junior Olympic or State Championship qualifying times. In essence, Districts Championships are meets designed to be “steppingstones” to the next level of meets. Each District Meet is a two and one half day timed finals meet.

JO (Q2)

Junior Olympics Meet is designed to allow all swimmers who have achieved Q2 time standards the opportunity to achieve Q1 State Championship standards. Thus, a swimmer cannot compete in events that they have currently achieved State Championship “Q1” standards. Also, a swimmer must also have minimally met the Q2 time standards in an event in order to be eligible to swim the event. This is a two and one half day timed finals meet.

State Championships (Q1)

Short Course Season: MS conducts two separate State Championship meets; a 12 and Under Meet and a 13 and Over Meet at the conclusion of the short course season (typically in March) Long Course Season: MS conducts a single State Championship Meet for all ages at the conclusion of the long course season (typically in late July/early August). The qualifying times for the Short Course and Long Course State Championships in all age groups and all events are published annually by the Office of Michigan Swimming, Inc at the beginning of the short course season and are referred to as “Q1”. They may also be found on the Michigan Swimming website.

Sectional/Jr. National/National Meets

Swimmers with the highest level of achievement from the nation compete at these meets. Qualifying times can be found from USA swimming website or Central Zone Website.

Meet Entry Process

Online Meet Entry using Direct Athletics

Once you registered with BBA, your account will be setup with DirectAthletics (http://www.directathletics.com).  All entries must be submitted ONLINE.

An initial username/password will be emailed to you – using the email address that you provided to BBA when you register.  This email will NOT contain “BBA” anywhere so some of you may have deleted it thinking it was a spam.  If you think that you have deleted your email notification or forget your username/password, please email Chi Yang @ chiyang2@gmail.com. She will send you the login information again. 

      
Please note that if you have more than one swimmer with BBA. Each swimmer in your family will have a separate DirectAthletics account and you will have to log in separately to enter entries for each swimmer.

For each meet, please read the meet packet carefully and submit the entry EARLY in DA, you can change your entries anytime before dead-line.  You are welcome to contact meet entry chairs PRIOR the meet is due if you have any question.  But once the meet is closed out, it would be very difficult, sometimes impossible for the meet entry chairs to get your swimmers into a meet.  Please understand and DO NOT contact the hosting by yourself when we tell you that we cannot add your swimmer to a meet when you miss the entry dead-line.

Meet entry is typically due on a Monday or a Friday by 9:00 PM.  The due date is posted on BBA website at the beginning of the season for each meet.  You are highly encouraged to mark your calendar, use your calendar tool reminder to enter meet entries as soon as it is available online.  Any late entries will result your swimmers either not getting into the meet or amount of re-work for the meet entry chairs.

Swim time information:

For all USS swimming members, your swim time can be found in USA swimming time database shortly after each meet is concluded.

Michigan Swimming also maintains swimmers’ swim time in Michigan Swimming database and each meet result will also be posted on Michigan Swimming Website shortly after the meet is concluded.

Bookmark these links for quick reference to find out your swimmers’ swim time.

http://www.uss-michigan.com/

http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=358&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en-US

Meet Payment

Entry fee information is in the BBA Entry Payment form for each meet posted on BBA website.  Unfortunately, we do not have an on-line payment method implemented at this time.  For each meet due, please write a check payable to BBA and mail it to the designated entry chair or at a designated pool indicated in the payment form.   

The new BBA Entry Form is used for payment and additional meet instruction only.  You will no longer need to fill out event information like using the old entry form.  All entries will ONLY be accepted using Direct Athletics.

Please pay attention to the instruction section on the Meet Entry Payment form. There may be additional information or specification instructions for you, for example, events to swim recommended by coaches.

The entry payment is due at the same date that the meet entry is due.  Please submit your payment ON-TIME at the pool or mail in your payment before due date.  Meet entry chair cannot complete the entry process without collecting the entire entry fee. 

When multiple meets are due, you can combine the fee for swimmers in your family for the same meet, but please use separate checks for each different meet.

In addition to the events fee (typical $4 or $5 per event).  Per meet per swimmer, Michigan Swimming add $1 surcharge; BBA adds $2 for in-state and $10 for out-of-state meets for meet processing and travel fund for the coaches.

Steps to enter a meet on-line

1.       Go to DirectAthletics website

http://www.directathletics.com/

2.      Enter username and password, click on login

Available meets will appear on screen. 

“Date” indicates when the meet is.

“Meet” is the name of the meet.

“Status” indicates when the meet entry will be closed on line.  You must enter all your entries before the “close” date and time.

3.      Click “HERE” Link to see all the available events for the swimmer to enter:

Open events are available to all age group.  So you will see these events as available events to you.  However, these are typically swum by the senior (15&U) age group kids.

4.      Click on the rectangle shape check box next to the event that you are going to swim and enter the “seed time” in the “Custom Time” field.

Example of seed time format

     For 1 minute, 5 seconds and 13/100^th, you would enter

          1:05.13

 Review/verify the seed time then Click “Submit”.

 Again, you can find your swim time from USA swimming database or Michigan Swimming database.

http://www.uss-michigan.com/

http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=358&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en-US

Log back on to DirectAthletics (step 1). 

You will see that the events and seed time that you had previously entered.

Click on “HERE” to modify entries if necessary.  You can modify your entries anytime before the Close date and time.

Good Luck and Have a Fabulous Season At BBA!!