Can someone explain qualifying times and when they need to be achieved?

[Anonymous]

Hi! As a new parent to swimming, can someone explain qualifying times and when they need to be achieved, relative to a swimmer's age? For ISCA, the rules state:

Age as of the first day of the meet (April 2, 2025) will determine the swimmer’s age group for competition. Qualifying times must have been achieved between January 1, 2023 – March 26, 2025.

Obviously, the period for which QT must be achieved spans more than a year and kids will age up in that time period.

So if a swimmer will be 11 as of the first day of the meet (let's say an April 1 birthday), but they have a achieved a qualifying time for a 10 year old during this period (say they make that qualifying time on March 1), would they be eligible for the meet? Or would they have to have achieved the qualifying time for an 11 year old?

[Anonymous]

If your kid is 11 on the first day of the meet, then they need to have swam the 11 year old QT sometime between Jan 2023 and March 2025. Obviously they have multiple events they could qualify in. But it is the 11 year old cuts that matter.

[Anonymous]

If they were a very fast 10 year old, and swam one of the 11 year old cuts as a 10 year old, they can still use that time to enter the meet, even if they only swam it as 10, never 11.

But yes, has to have the cut for their age the first day of the meet to enter.

[Anonymous]

Thank you!!

[Anonymous]

Do relay times count?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do relay times count?

Generally only the leadoff leg can count as an official time.

[Anonymous]

You can look at the swimstandards.com or myswimio.com times to see if the relay leadoff was entered as a leg