Swim Meet Entries and Fees Explained
For anyone new to USA Swimming, meet entries and fees can be a bit confusion.
Sorry for the delay in getting this note out about meet entries but the USA Swimming registration process has been particularly challenging this year. Since no one is supposed to practice or attend meets without being recognized as registered by USA swimming, that has been the priority. Now that we are through that process let us look at meet entry.
Meet entry begins with swimmers selecting “attending” or “not attending”. Then when the meet entry file is active swimmers can select events to swim up to the limit per day set up by the meet host. The coaches review the entries and will sometimes make changes in the best interest of the swimmer. It is very important that swimmers talk to their coaches about the events they are swimming in before getting to the meet.
Once the events are approved and sent to the meet host no more changes can be made except to scratch. The account is billed for the meet entry fees (see below). After the meet entry fees are sent to the meet host there are no refunds. Once again, it is very important that swimmers talk to the coaches about their events before getting to the meet.
Swimming meets are billed separately from the monthly practice fees.
There are 2-3 charges assigned to meet entries.
1) The entry fee per event includes $1.25 collected by the ST LSC. The total amount varies by location and/or the meet host.
2) The coaching fee (for time, travel, and other expenses incurred to have coaches present on deck at the swimming meet). The monthly practice fee only covers practice. The rate is $10/day/session. At high level meets where there are both prelims and finals the rate is $20/day.
3) Some facilities charge a facility use fee. For example, UT, many pools in San Antonio and Belton do have a facility use fee while the Round Rock Unclassified and the Pumpkin meet do not.
That is the met entry process in a nutshell. Talk to your coach if you have further questions.
