Homestead Farm Tarpons

Do I have to login to declare my swimmer for every meet?

Yes. Even if your child is not attending the meet you must login and declare your child as “not attending.” If you don’t do this, the coaches assume your child is swimming and places them into events. We must make this assumption because it is much easier to scratch a swimmer than add one. However, we will run a more efficient meet if you remember to login and declare your swimmer. Instructions for declaring your swimmer can be found here: h

How Do I Read The Entries List?

Here is a sample entries listing
#63 John Smith Boys 9-10 50 Free 1:13.88 1/4

#63 is the event number. The time is the seed time. The seed time is your child’s fastest time for that particular event. If your child has never been in the event it will show NT. 1 stands for the heat and 4 stand for the lane. So John is swimming in event #63, heat #1, lane #4

Keep in mind that the Clerk of Course is always combining events and moving kids “on the fly” on deck so your swimmer could be moved to a different heat or lane but this gives you a general idea of where to stand and when.

Will you please move my swimmer to a different event?

No, we are not allowed, per league rules, to move any swimmers. This was set up to keep teams from moving swimmers to gain a competitive advantage after the event was seeded and published. If your swimmer was put into the wrong event on accident, please talk to your coach. We do everything we can to accommodate your child so they can swim and do their best, but this must happen with consent from both team Coaches and often can’t happen until the scratch meeting 30 minutes before the meet.

Why did you put my swimmer in that lane or heat?

We “seed the meet” using the help of a computer program that places swimmers in lanes based on seed time. The fastest swimmer is placed in lane 3, second fastest in lane 4 and it moves out from there. The slower heats go first followed by the faster heats. If your child has no time for an event they will be seeded in an outer lane. This allows us to be unbiased in the placement of swimmers and also allows us to run a faster meet. For those of you who have been around a few years, you will remember that seeding used to be based on alternating of teams in each lane. We changed this rule in 2013 for two reasons. First, it removed any opportunity for Meet Manager bias in lane placement and second, it helped to speed up the meets by creating faster heats as well as more evenly timed heats.

Will you please look up my child’s time for ____ event?

Where can I find the pool records and how is this tracked?

Pool records are publically available here: https://homesteadfarm.swimtopia.com/pool-records

Pool records are just that, records at our pool. If you break a pool record time at another team pool it does not apply. There are lots of reasons for this like converting from yards to meters accuracy, etc. so if you are working toward a pool record make sure you make our home meets! You will see the records listed on the meet program for home meets. We don’t keep records for relays. Some teams in the league do but this has never been tracked by Homestead Farm.

How can I see the score and my child’s finish time during swim meets?

How accurate is the start time for each heat on the meet program?

Will you tell me why my child was issued a DQ?

We know this can be upsetting and every meet parents come to the scoring table asking for explanations. We value you as neighbors and really want to help you but when we stop scoring to help you find the DQ codes on your swimmer, we get distracted, make mistakes and get behind. Please see your coach, after the meet, about the reason for the DQ. They will be provided a full detail DQ list for all Homestead Farm athletes.

I think you made a mistake entering my child’s time?

We do our best but sometimes we do make mistakes. If that happens, please see your coach. They will verify this with us at the scoring table. If there was a mistake it will be corrected. If it was not wrong on the timer sheet but there is still an issue, your coach will take this up with the Referee.

If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to contact us. Go Mighty Tarpons!

Travis Morgan 
Homestead Farm Tarpons Meet Manager