Swimtopia Meet Entries – Ready to Merge

» Note: This merge process is necessary if the meet is being run in Swimtopia Meet. If you (or the host team) are using another system to run the meet ➞ See Meet is Run in Another System (i.e. Meet Manager, Swimmingly...).

Covered in this Article:

➧ Swimtopia Meet Merge Steps

• Step 1: Lock Entries
• Step 2: Designate Readiness to Merge Entries
• Step 3: Select Record Books (if available)
• Optional: Upload/Import Files (Entries, Roster, Advancers)
• Step 4: Merge Meet Entries (Home Team)
• Step 5: Launch the Meet in Swimtopia Meet

➧ Additional Topics

• Merge Status After the Meet is Merged
• Trouble-shooting Merge Errors
• Deck Entries After Merge
• Results Download from Swimtopia Meet
• Advancers File Download (Prelims/Finals)
• Virtual Meets

Step 1: Lock Entries

After all meet entries are completed and the meet is linked between the home/visitor teams, it’s time to lock entries down and signal that you’re ready to merge to seed the meet.

Go to the Merge/Export tab and set “Lock out all entry changes” to On. 

➞ See the Swimtopia - Meet Linking article for more details on linking meets.

» Note: This will automatically Close your athlete signup (if open) so no additional changes can be made by your members/parents. If you unlock, you will need to manually reopen your Athlete Signup under the Meet Setup > Status screen.

USA Swimming Teams - Membership Status Warning

A membership warning will be displayed for any athlete entered into an event that does not have a valid USA Swimming membership. Hovering over the info icon (?) will display the names of the athletes. You can choose to proceed or reach out to the families to confirm. 

If the athlete's USA Swimming membership needs to be updated, this must be updated within SWIMS from the USA Swimming member login (not within the Swimtopia account).

» Note: This warning will not display on your Swimtopia site unless your team is connected to USA Swimming. ➞ See the Connecting USA Swimming and Swimtopia, if you have not completed this step.

Step 2: Designate Readiness to Merge Entries

When using Swimtopia Meet for meet management, each team competing in the meet must indicate their entries are "ready to merge" before the Build in Swimtopia Meet button is enabled, and entries can be combined and seeded.

After locking entries, you will see Swimtopia Meet and Downloads tabs. From the Swimtopia Meet screen, slide the status bar next to your team name to the 'On' Ready position to designate you are ready to merge.
 

➞ Intrasquad / Time Trial Setup:

You can run your meet in Swimtopia Meet with only one team. When you mark yourself as ready and merge your teams' entries, the meet will be created in Swimtopia Meet, but it will not create a split-team meet.

If you would like to take advantage of running your Intrasquad or Time Trials meet in Swimtopia Meet as if you were competing against another team, you can accomplish with two options using Swimtopia. ➞ See Intrasquad/Time Trials Setup Options

➞ What the screen looks like in different "Ready" states:

➧ Home Team View (Visitor Not Ready) The visiting team has not indicated they are ready to merge, so they display as "Not ready" on the home team site and the Build in Swimtopia Meet button will be disabled until both teams are designated as Ready to Merge.
➧ Home Team View (Everyone Ready) In this view from the home team site, both teams have indicated "Ready to Merge," so the Build in Swimtopia Meet button is enabled.
➧ Visiting Team View (Everyone Ready) This is the visiting teams' viewpoint when both teams are ready.

Step 3: Select Record Books (if available)

➧ Team Record Books

You can select which Record Books (if any) you want to include for your team in the meet. ➞ See Creating a Record Book to set up your record books, if you have not already. 

➧ League Record Books

Home teams can select to include shared league record books when merging their meet. These will be displayed in the pop-up menu:

It's ideal for the home team to select the shared league records, but league admins can also add a league record book to any meet that's on the league website. There is no indication that a league record book has been added to the meet on any of the teams' meet setup, but they will be visible from the meet in Swimtopia Meet.➞ See the League Record Books article for additional details. 

➧ Record Books in Swimtopia Meet

Athletes holding records in each event from a team and/or league record book will be displayed in the Benchmarks section of the data entry screen.

If a team forgets to include their Record books before merging entries, they can be added directly in the meet in Swimtopia Meet. Eligible teams per record book can be edited as well. ➞ See Swimtopia Meet Settings - Benchmarks (Records & Time Standards) for details.

Optional: Upload/Import Files (Entries, Roster, Advancers)

Swimtopia supports the upload of multiple file types to ensure your meet runs smoothly when you want to use Swimtopia Meet, but the competing team does not use Swimtopia, any software, or if your team is using another system for your entries.

These file types could include:

• Meet Entries File
• Merge Entries File
• Roster File - helpful for deckadd when the opposing team does not use any software.
• Advancers File - helpful for finals meets

If you don't have a roster file to upload for a team that does not use a software program, you can still manually add teams and athletes to the meet in Swimtopia Meet ➞ See Swimtopia Meet Settings - Teams

➞ See Swimtopia - Upload/Import Entries Files for more uploading details, as needed.

Step 4: Merge Meet Entries (Home Team)

Clicking the Build in Swimtopia Meet button opens a dialog with options for the Merge

» Note: Some options will be disabled, based on the league’s Meet Template “Seeding & Scoring” settings ➞ See Swimtopia - Setting Up Seeding and Scoring Rules for more details.

➧ Lane Assignment Seeding and Pool Configuration Confirmation

You'll have the opportunity to edit the course and number of lanes of your pool at this screen:

➧ Specific Lane Assignment Verification

At the next screen, your lane assignments will be verified, based upon your seeding rules in your meet. You can edit these lane assignments here if needed:

➧ Odd-Laned Pools and Designated Scoring Heats

If you have a pool with an odd number of lanes, only an even number of lanes will be scored. Be sure to set your lane count on this screen:

On the next screen, you should only see an even number of lanes listed, and these will be the designated scoring lanes for that heat.

» Note: Please double-check that the correct lanes are designated as your scoring lanes. The default follows USA Swimming rules, which designate that Lane 1 is the non-scoring lane. If you'd like Lane 1 to be a scoring lane, be sure it's listed in the lane assignments. The non-scoring lane should not appear in the lane assignments at all.

➧ Example: Lane 1 is Scoring and Lane 5 is Non-Scoring

Lane 5 should not appear in the lane assignments:

Depending on how your meet is set up in the seeding/scoring rules, the lane that is not listed will either be:

• Seeded with the next fastest swimmer from either team (who will be a non-scoring swimmer), or
• Left empty

In designated scoring heats with designated scoring lanes, the setting for whether to fill the non-scoring lane is in the Seeding and Scoring rules for the meet (or in the meet template assigned to the meet):

Step 5: Launch the Meet in Swimtopia Meet

After the meet is merged, a Swimtopia Meet button will appear in the header. This allows for easy access from any screen if you need to get back into the meet. Clicking on this button will launch Swimtopia Meet in a new window.

Multiple admins, including admins on any of the participating teams, may then click the Swimtopia Meet button to see the meet in Swimtopia Meet and run reports. The meet may be open in multiple browsers concurrently.

» Note: Swimtopia Meet is only fully supported using the Google Chrome browser (version 117+ Sept. 2023). If you experience printing issues, Chrome is usually the solution. Swimtopia Meet can work using the other browsers (Edge 117+, Firefox 119+, Safari 17+), but it is NOT compatible with Internet Explorer.

Merge Status After the Meet is Merged

Once the home team merges the entries for the meet, the Merge Status will show "Merged" and all status options are automatically reset on each site – this is to prevent the home team from making meet entry changes and rebuilding the meet without the visiting team’s consent.

Trouble-shooting Merge Errors

If you receive an error when attempting to merge entries, the issue is likely due to mismatched events. Ask the visiting team to correct their file or edit your events as necessary. The best way to ensure events are in sync is to download your events file from Meet Setup > Events to send to teams. 

Deck Entries After Merge

➧ The athlete is on the roster, but not entered in any events

They should be available to be added to events from Swimtopia Meet’s Settings under Athletes, or directly to the events in the data entry interface. ➞ See the Meet-Swimtopia Meet - Athlete Entry Deck Changes article for more.

➧ The athlete was not part of the roster at the time of the merge of meet entries

A meet admin can add the athlete to the meet directly. ➞ See Swimtopia Meet Settings – Athletes to learn how.

» Tip: When many changes are needed by either team, rebuilding may be a more efficient option, but a new meet is created, essentially overwriting any changes already made in the original meet. 

➧ The opposing team uses paper entries (does not have a meet system)

Meet admins can manage teams competing in the meet directly in Swimtopia Meet. This includes adding new teams, editing existing teams, deleting teams, and filtering by team name or abbreviation. ➞ See Swimtopia Meet Settings - Teams to learn how.

Results Download from Swimtopia Meet

After running the meet and completing any data entry or edits, you’ll be ready to transfer your team’s results into your Swimtopia site and each competitor's site from the Settings > Finish & Export screen in Swimtopia Meet. 

If competing against a non-Swimtopia team, you can download and send the results for the other team in the .hy3 or .sd3 file format so they can upload all results into their team management platform. 

➞ See the Swimtopia Meet Settings – Finish & Export article for more details.

Advancers File Download (Prelims/Finals)

The Advancers file format is used when one swim meet serves as the qualification round for a subsequent swim meet. Usually, the top N finishers from each event move on to the next meet, and teams can also designate N number of alternate swimmers. However, multiple qualifying meets can feed into the later meet, so the rules can get complex. 

Both of these post-meet downloads will be done from within the meet settings in Swimtopia Meet ➞ See the Swimtopia Meet Settings – Finish & Export article for more details.

Virtual Meets

You may have noticed the option to "Build as Virtual Meet (session per team)” when merging your meet. Although the initial purpose was for COVID-19, Virtual Meets could be an opportunity to swim against teams outside of your area/state, so we see this as a valuable feature to promote safety in this new normal AND provide our customers with an option to expand their swim experience.

➞ See our Swimtopia Meet - Virtual Meets article for more on this topic.

➞ Next Topic: Swimtopia Pre-Meet Reports - Athletes and Entries

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