An email update sent yesterday from Jamie Lewis, Special Projects Manager at USA Swimming, alerted coaches to a significant change in the qualifying standards for the upcoming Arena Pro Swim Series meet at the George F. Haines International Swim Center in Santa Clara, California. According to USA-S, Online Meet Entry is open and will be allowing entries based on Winter Junior National qualifying times, rather than the previously established standards that had originally been posted.
The meet information for the event was revised on May 2nd to reflect the new qualifying standards, but indicates that international entries will still be required to follow the original time standards. Last July it was announced that the Santa Clara meet would share the June 3-5, 2016 weekend with another Arena Pro Swim Series meet in Indianapolis. This adjustment in time standards brings the Santa Clara meet into alignment with changes made to the Indianapolis meet made on March 30th.
It is unclear at this point whether the change in qualifying times was simply made to increase opportunities for more athletes to shoot for Olympic Trials Qualifying Standards, or whether splitting into two sites caused a worrisome reduction in participation. The Santa Clara and Indianapolis meets remains capped at 600 swimmers each and Online Meet Entry is scheduled to close on May 24th.
*Update: USA Swimming’s official statement on the time standard change can be seen at this link.
USA Swimming has already changed Indianapolis Pro Series Meet qualifying standards to Winter JNATS.
Thanks for the heads up. Revising to reflect that.