What a seed time actually is
On every start list the last column is almost always a clock: 39.88, or 1:23.45, or two letters. That clock is the seed time — the entry time the club sent when they entered the gala. Meet software uses it to sort the field. Similar times race together. That is the whole job of the number: a sort key, not a score.
In Ireland you will also hear entry time. Same object. Under a minute: 39.88. Over a minute: 1:08.22. Irish sheets say SC or LC in the title — 25m or 50m. Compare like with like. Finding event, heat, and lane is how to read a heat sheet. How those numbers become heats is why the fastest swimmers go last. This page is the number itself.
The seed is last best going in. Today's result is what they swim. If the result is faster, that is the next seed — if someone keeps the number.
It is not a prediction
I have watched a parent treat 39.88 as a target the child is supposed to hit, then look wounded when the scoreboard says 40.40. The seed was never a forecast. It is a fact about a previous licensed swim, frozen when entries closed. Training since then, a growth spurt, a mid-season add — none of that rewrites the column. A coach’s hoped-for cut is not the seed either. Hope does not seed a heat.
Do not tell a child the seed is “what you should do today”. It is what they already did, on another day, in another pool. Today's job is the race in front of them.
It is not today's result
Three clocks get treated as one. The seed is the before. The scoreboard — or Meet Mobile — is a first look, often unofficial until officials sign it off. The results sheet is the official time. Compare seed to result. That gap is the story of the swim: a drop, an add, or a first official time if the seed said NT.
NT means No Time: nothing official on file for that event. It is an empty seed, not a DQ. The parent version is what NT means on a heat sheet. This page only needs one fact: NT is a missing last best, and today's legal finish fills it.
Last official best — and when it isn't
The default seed is last official best: fastest licensed time already on file for that event in that course. A 50 free seed does not travel from a 100 free. A 25m PB does not automatically become a 50m seed. Two clocks, two histories — that is short course vs long course.
The honest version is the fastest official swim the club can prove. A training time trial is useful at home. It is not a seed unless the meet pack says otherwise. Level 1 times in Ireland often never reach the national database — they can still seed the next club gala if the host accepts them. Official, unofficial, and converted: how to track swimming times.
Sometimes the seed is stale: entries closed three weeks ago, they dropped last Saturday, this sheet still prints October. Sometimes it is a conversion or a time nobody can find. The sheet will still sort them. Your job is to know which kind of number you are looking at.
Converted seeds vs official times
A converted seed is maths. The gala is long course and you only hold a short-course PB, or the other way around. The club — or the host software — applies a conversion so the field can be sorted. The child did not swim 1:08.76 in a 50-metre pool. Someone estimated what a short-course 1:05.20 might look like over a longer course. It can place them in a heat. It is not a personal best on that course. The three buckets — PB, official, converted — are defined in personal best vs official time vs converted time. How the estimate itself is made is how to convert SCM to LCM.
| Kind of number | What it is | Can it seed a heat? | Is it a PB? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official seed | Last licensed best, same event, same course | Yes — the usual entry | Yes: that is last best |
| Converted seed | A time from the other course, run through a formula | Often, if the pack allows it | No. Mark it converted |
| Unofficial / training | Watch on the balcony, time trial, Level 1 splash the database never saw | Only if the host accepts it | A home PB, not a ranking time |
| Today's result | The official clock after this race | Not yet — it becomes the next seed if it is faster | Yes, if it beats last best |
Write “converted seed” in the notes so nobody later thinks 1:08.76 was swum in a 50-metre pool. The conversion seeded the heat. The PB list stays on the course they actually raced.
On the start list, put a C beside any seed you know was converted. After the race, log the official time against the course they swam today. Two rows if you must. Never let the conversion overwrite the real PB.
Psych sheet vs heat sheet — same seed, different jobs
Irish regional sites often post a psych sheet days before a bigger gala: Connacht Open, Leinster, Irish Open, McCullagh. It ranks entries by seed time. No heat. No lane. Useful for “who is in the field”. Useless for the block.
The heat sheet — the start list, the programme — has heat and lane. Marshalling follows that. The seed on both documents should be the same number. Neither is a result. Finding the three numbers is the heat-sheet guide. How heats get filled is why the fastest go last. Here you only need this: the seed does not change when the host prints heats. Only today's official time can replace it.
| Document | When | The seed column shows | Does not show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psych sheet | After entries close | Entry times, ranked | Heat, lane, or a result |
| Heat sheet / start list | Once heats are seeded | The same entry times, now beside a heat and lane | Today's official time |
| Results | After the race | Nothing — the seed is gone. You get official time and place | The planned start |
How a PB becomes the next seed
Last best is a baton. Today's official time either takes it or leaves it where it is.
If they swim faster than the seed, that new time is last best for that event and course. The club should enter it next time. If they add — 40.10 against a 39.88 seed — last best does not get worse. The old seed stays. If they were NT and they finish legally, the result is the seed from now on. If they DQ, last best does not change; NT stays NT.
Someone has to write the new number down, and someone has to send it with the next entry. WhatsApp screenshots die. I built Finzy so last best lives in one place — event, course, hundredths — and next month's sheet is a number you already know. Finzy does not pull seeds from Meet Manager. You keep the swim.
A worked example — follow Holly
Same invented Event 7 as the heat-sheet guide: Girls 11–12 50 Freestyle, eight-lane short course. Over there we found Holly on the start list. Here we stay with the last column. Names and clubs are examples only.
| Rank | Name | Team | Seed time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McCarthy, Isla | EXSC | 34.12 |
| 8 | Foley, Hannah | DEMO | 38.10 |
| 12 | Ryan, Holly | EXSC | 39.88 |
| 13 | O'Neill, Grace | SHRK | 40.21 |
| — | Brennan, Aoife | EXSC | NT |
| Name | Seed going in | Official result | Next seed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan, Holly | 39.88 | 38.41 | 38.41 |
| O'Neill, Grace | 40.21 | 40.90 | 40.21 |
| Brennan, Aoife | NT | 47.55 | 47.55 |
| McCarthy, Isla | 34.12 | 34.40 | 34.12 |
Holly (highlighted) entered on last best 39.88. She dropped to 38.41. That is the next seed. Grace added, so last best stays 40.21. Aoife had NT; 47.55 is PB #1 and the next seed. Isla added a fraction; her seed does not get worse. Names and clubs are examples only.
The psych sheet ranked Holly twelfth on 39.88. The heat sheet used the same 39.88 to give her a seat. Neither number was today's swim. Next month, if the club sends 38.41, the sheet will print 38.41. If nobody writes it down, it will print 39.88 again.
Where the number comes from at an Irish gala
Your club Team Manager usually sends entries from a Hy-Tek team file. The host seeds the meet and sends a start list back. That PDF on WhatsApp is the heat sheet. Bigger weekends publish a psych sheet first, then heats, often on Meet Mobile. Common at Leinster and Swim Ireland meets; not guaranteed at a Sunday Level 1. If the meet is not in the app, trust the PDF.
The seed is only as honest as the file it came from. A club change, a missing result, a converted time in the wrong column — the software will print whatever it was given. You cannot fix Meet Manager from the balcony. You can keep your own last best, by event and course, so you know when the sheet is stale. That is not importing Hy-Tek. That is owning the number.
Your seed is your last best. Finzy is the source of truth — one place, so the number on the sheet is a baseline you already know.
Keep last best in one place
After the race, put seed going in beside time coming out — course, date, gala. If it is faster, that row is the next seed. If it is not, last best does not move. Do it before you leave the car park. I keep those in Finzy: event, course, last best. How to run that list for a season is how to track swimming times. If the letters are NT, start with what NT means. If the heat number rattled you, that is why the fastest swimmers go last.
