Central Illinois Swim Conference (CISC) Official Rules and Procedures
Purpose
This Recreational Swim Conference will function on a semi-formal basis for the purpose of stimulating
competitive interest in dual meet swimming, promoting good sportsmanship, team loyalty and sociability
among swimmers and creating inner-conference relationships through the interest provided by dual meet
swimming.
Membership
The CISC is comprised of 8 teams forming 2 divisions. The “North” Division includes Crystal Lake/Urbana, Indian Acres, Lincolnshire Fields, and Sholem; the “South” Division includes Charleston, Effingham, Shelbyville, and Tuscola.
Meetings
The CISC team representatives and coaches will meet at least once annually. In January-February the conference will vote on any recommended By-law revisions; upcoming year’s meet schedule will be distributed and adjusted; Conference fees
will be determined at that meeting as well.
The meeting will include an evaluation of the season. Final votes on By-law revisions from the winter meeting will be conducted.
Coaches meeting – it is advised that coaches attend any meetings to provide input and suggestions to the conference.
Each club has two votes. A single representative from any one club may cast both votes.
Every member should send a minimum of 1 representative.
Swimmer Eligibility
All swimmers must be members of their respective teams. Age divisions are determined by the swimmers age on June 1 st.
Swimmers may be a member of only 1 CISC team.
Swimmers must be 18 years or under (June 1 is the cut-off date).
Swimmers may not participate if they swam for their college team.
A swimmer may participate if he/she is a recipient of an athletic scholarship for the upcoming year.
Coaches may swim for points if they meet the CISC eligibility guidelines.
Age Divisions
6 and under; 8 and under; 10 and under; 12 and under; 14 and under; 18 and under.
General Rules and Limits
USA Swimming Rules shall be observed except where otherwise stated.
Swimmers may compete in three individual events and two relays.
Swimmers may swim up in individual or relay events as long as they do not compete twice in any stroke or relay. Discretion should be used in entering a swimmer in an event more than one age group above the swimmer’s age.
Swimmers must participate in two (2) meets to be eligible for the CISC Conference meet in 2012 because Lincolnshire Fields will be unable to have a team this season. This will revert to three (3) meets again when LFCC has their new pool operational (i.e., 2013
season).
Swimming in an exhibition event counts towards conference eligibility. CISC team members should participate in at least three of their team’s practices per week.
Good sports behavior is expected of all swimmers, coaches and spectators. Swimmers judged to be engaging in inappropriate conduct may be scratched from their remaining events and asked to leave the meet site by the meet director. Any coach or spectator that is
judged to be engaging in improper behavior will be asked to lave the meet site by the meet head official. Communication shall be between coaches and meet officials. Parents will communicate through their team’s coaches.
Required Meets
Each team is required to meet at least once officially with each of the other teams comprising their division and will also host a team from the other division as well as travel to a meet against a team in the other division for a total of five (5) dual meets each season.
These meets need to be completed before the Conference Championships. Meets shall be alternating: home one year, away the next year.
Officials
Officials must be trained through their CISC team. Training will consist of viewing the USA Swimming officials training video. All officials should also be familiar with the standard DQ form and with the CISC guidelines when these deviate from the USA Swimming rules.
Dual Meets
Line ups must be at the host pool by 5 p.m. on Thursday prior to the meet.
Line up changes are to be made by 8 a.m. prior to the meet at the scorer’s table.
Teams are limited to 20 changes. No changes will be made after 8 a.m.
It is strongly recommended that all teams use the Meet Manager software to run meets.
The home team will be responsible for all of the cards, which will be generated based on the submitted line up. These will be used by the bullpen and for the timers.
A team may enter only one relay per event for points. If a team swims more than one relay, the relay entered for points must be pre-designated.
In individual dual meets:
The home team will be responsible for providing ribbons for the top 6 places ONLY in each event, including relays. There will not be ribbons for any other places beyond the fastest 6 swimmers. Both the home and visiting teams can decide on their own if they want
to provide ribbons for the rest of their team’s competitors in each event. These will no longer be the responsibility of the home team to provide.
Rather than designating the first heat of each event as the scoring heat, meets will now be run as “timed finals”. In other words, a swimmer in any heat could potentially score points. It will be completely dependent on the time achieved in the event, regardless of the heat the swimmer is in.
However, each team will still be allowed to only score 3 individuals per event and 1 relay per relay event.
Each heat of an event will still use the home-away lane assignments (i.e., there will be 3 swimmers in each heat from both teams until that is no longer possible).
Boys and girls relays may be swam in the same heat.
Relay teams must be single gender.
There shall be a minimum of 76 events, including medley and free relays. See official Order of Events sheet.
It is recommended that entries be limited to one extra heat per event. The coach of the home team may schedule extra heats whenever time and space permit. Visiting team coaches may request extra heats prior to 5 p.m. Thursday preceding a Saturday meet or at least 36 hours prior to a weekday meet. The host coach shall make the final decision regarding extra heats to be swum if requested where time and space permit. The host coach will let the visiting coach know how many extra heats will be permitted by
the Thursday prior to the meet.
Visiting Teams will be expected to supply one stroke and turn judge, half the timers, a bullpen assistant, and one scorekeeper.
There will be a place picker for all dual meets; it should be either the starter or his/her designee.
Time of Meets
Saturday meets will begin at 8:30 a.m.
Warm-ups may not begin before 7:30 a.m. and must be completed by 8:25 a.m.
Inclement Weather Delay
Should dual meet be required to be delayed due to inclement weather on the morning of said meet, it may be “called” no earlier than 9:30 a.m. and must have the consent by both team representatives present.
If meet can or cannot be rescheduled due to timing constraints of one or both teams, that meet will be counted towards eligibility for all swimmers that were in attendance the morning of the meet.
If the meet is cancelled due to severe weather prior to the meet start time, the meet will be counted
towards eligibility for all swimmers that were on the line-up for both teams at the 5:00 p.m. dead-line on the Thursday prior to the meet.
Lane Assignment
Dual meet home team lanes: 1, 3, 5
Visiting team lanes: 2, 4, 6
In a double dual meet, coaches shall decide which lanes each team should use.
Scoring for dual and double meets:
Individual events: 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1
(6 and under events are scored)
Relay events: 7 and 3
Disqualification:
All CISC teams will follow the USA Swimming rules. All teams will use the US Swimming carbonless copy DQ form. (This form is available on the USA Swimming website, http://www.usaswimming.org.)
Each team must provide runner(s) to watch officials and pick up
DQ slips. Yellow copy goes to the team/coach; white copy goes to the scoring table.
Officials will be lenient on the 6 and under age swimmers (swimming in 6 and under events) the entire season and championship meet regarding disqualification.
Swimmers (6 and under) will only be disqualified if their offense gives them a blatant competitive advantage over the other swimmers. If they are in violation, but are gaining no competitive advantage by this violation, they will be given a warning by the officials.
Coaches, officials and parents are reminded that the purpose of disqualifications is not punishment, but fairness, coaching and instruction.
Grievances:
Grievances should be discussed prior to the end of the meet with coaches, referee and meet director.
Individual parents may not file a grievance. Communication must be through the team’s coach.
Conference Championship Meets
Site and Date
The Conference meet must be held at a site having at least six lanes. The site along with the date of the meet will be decided at the January/February meeting. For 2012, the Conference meet will be held at Effingham. Next year (2013) either Crystal Lake or Sholem will host, with Charleston as a backup if needed.
Entries
Rules regarding age are the same as those outlined for dual meets. Swimmers may enter three individual events and two relays. A
team may enter up to three (3) relays per relay event. For relays, points will be awarded for the fastest relay for each club, but only 1 relay per club will score points up to 8th place (as long as no disqualifications take place which eliminate a team from scoring points). Awards will be given for whichever relay earns the place. Thus, if a team has 2 relays in the top 8 fastest times, only the fastest will count for points, but both relays will get their respective awards. It is possible that a team may not get any awards in a given relay event. Finally, even though a team may enter as many as 3 relays per relay event, only 2 would be eligible for awards. Any of the entered relays may be the scoring relay(s), that is, the relay(s) with the fastest time for the team will be scored.
Each club must send one check covering all entries for that particular club. Checks should be made out to the host club for the conference meet. No entries will be accepted without an enclosed check.
Entries must arrive by the specified time as explained in the conference packet distributed by the host team (should receive a minimum of two weeks prior to the meet).
Starting Blocks
Secured starting blocks will be at one end of the pool only. Novice swimmers may start from the deck level or in the water rather than from the blocks.
Timing
The electronic timing system will not be used with the 6 & under and 8 & under age groups (on 25 yard events). Times will be taken with hand held timers. In general electronic times are the official times with hand times used as back up times.
Scoring
Sixteen places will be scored. No more than 5 places per team will be scored. A swimmer who cannot earn points can receive the award for the place achieved.
Age Order
The championship meet will be split into the following age groups
Morning: 6 and under, 8 and under, 10 and under
Afternoon: 12 and under, 14 and under, 18 and under
Coaches
Coaches will be allowed near the starting blocks for 6 & under and 8 & under age groups only to give encouragement and to assist them with the line up. Coaches must not touch the novice once the starter has called an event. Coaches will be allowed only in designated areas for all other age group events.
Changes
There will be no changes other than scratches the day of the Conference meet.
Team Organization
Swimmers who are in unauthorized areas will be disqualified by the Meet Director.
Club Responsibilities
All teams share in the responsibilities of staging the conference meet. Club responsibilities will rotate each year in the order listed below (these will be confirmed at the January meeting):
AM Bullpen
PM Bullpen
Awards
Officials
Times and Card Runners
Meet Director (Host team)
Conference Information
The conference host must send out conference information 3-4 weeks prior to the meet.
Qualifying Swimmers
Each swimmer must participate in at least three (3) dual meets.
Financing
Total cost of awards plus operating expenses of the meet shall be determined at the winter/spring meeting. Conference fees will be determined at that meeting as well.
Fees
A $2.00 per event per swimmer fee will be assessed to cover the meet costs. One check from each swim club must be given to the host pool upon registration. This price will be set annually at the winter/spring meeting.
Record Keeping
The Urbana Park District will maintain a copy of the conference records.
Results
A complete set of results will be distributed to each coach within 1 week of the meet.
Revised March 2012