Entry Time Conversions

Entry times to swim meets serve two basic purposes: 1) to determine eligibility for the meet and 2) to properly seed swimmers in their events. Usually, a swimmer will enter an event using his or her best or most recent time. However, if a swimmer has not swum an event recently and has been improving, his or her best or most recent time may not seed them in an event appropriately. This is often true for newer swimmers in Long Course when the last time they swam an event was the previous summer. In these cases, it might be appropriate to convert a short course time into a long course time for entry purposes.

The Time Converter can assist you with those time conversions. Select the course conversion (i.e. short course to long course).  Select the event distance (the stroke doesn't matter except for the distance freestyles).  Enter the time (minutes and seconds) to be converted and click "Convert".
Conversion Calculator


Time to be Converted

Converted Time

  

A couple words of caution:

  1. Conversion times are only estimates. They may not be truly accurate for any given swimmer. For instance, a short course "A" time may not convert to a long course "A" time or visa versa. As an example: in the Girls 10 & Under 200 Yard Free, a time of 2:53.99 is a B time (A/JO cut is 2:50.99).  It converts to 3:15.39 which is an A/JO time (A/JO cut is 3:16.69). The conversion does not make the swimmer an "A" swimmer nor JO qualified.
  2. CCS and USA Swimming rules say that you are suppose to use your best time for meet entries. Be careful and check the entry rules for any meet that you want to use converted times. Some meets do not accept converted times and require that you prove that you have actually swum the event in order to enter it.
  3. For Junior Olympics, CCS rules state that if you are qualified in a short course or long course event, you are qualified for the same event in the other course, even if you have not met the time standard for that course. However, when submitting a time for the non-qualified event, DO NOT USE A CONVERTED TIME, but rather use the minimum JO time standard for the event.  Taking the example from #1, if a 10 & Under Girl swims a 2:50.89 in the 200 Yard Freestyle which is a JO cut, but does not have a JO qualified Long Course time for that event, she is still eligible to enter the event in Long Course JOs. She would enter her time as 3:16.69 and not 3:11.98 (the Converted Time).

So the best advise is check with your coach before using a converted time to enter a meet.