When adding or editing an event, the lower right panel of the Add/Edit window contains the settings for the finals which follow prelims or semi-finals.
Heats in Finals
There may be 1 to 6 heats in finals. If A - Final, B - Final Style is checked, the fastest heat would be the A - Final, the second fastest heat would be the B - Final, ...the 6th fastest heat would be the F - Final. With the A-B Final Style, no one can move to a higher place than their heat which means in an 8 lane pool, the highest place that an entry in the B - Final can get is 9th event if the entry has the fastest finals time overall. If A-B Final Style is not checked, the finals are scored just like a timed final where the slowest qualifier can move up to first.
# Lanes Vary
This feature allows you to have different numbers of lanes for each heat in finals. For example a popular way to run Championship, Consolation, and Bonus finals is to seed them with a super final where the fastest heat comprises only four swimmers in the odd lanes and the other two final heats have the normal 8 swimmers. In this 8-8-4 case, the B - Final or Consolation final would get places 5th thru 12th and the C - Final or Bonus final would get places 13th thru 20th.
Max Age for Slowest Finals
For the Finals of a Prelim / Final Open event, you can set up the event to limit any number of the slower heats to a certain age such as 18 & under. This preference is setup with each event as shown above. Previously, there was a global feature in the Seeding Preferences to limit only the C Final to a certain age in all Prelim / Final events setup with A - Final, B- Final, C - Final. To setup the preference for a given event, the Meet Type must be a Standard Meet or a Divisions by Event meet and the event must be an individual event with A - Final, B - Final Style. The event cannot be Multi-Age Group or Diving. The alternates for each of the two sections of the Finals are listed in the meet program. As an example, if an event is setup with 5 final heats and the two slowest finals heats are limited to say 17 & under, the alternates for the A - Final, B - Final, C - Final will be the next two fastest from the Prelims regardless of age and the alternates for the D - Final, E - Final will be the remaining two fastest 17 & under swimmers
Score Prelims as Extended Final
If this check box is checked, points are awarded down into prelims if a 2 round event and down into semi-finals if a 3 round event. For example, suppose there are two finals of 8 each and you want to score down to 24th place. Set up the point system with points for 1st thru 24th and the entries from prelims (or semis) that were not in finals and got 17th thru 24th will get points. If there were scratches and/or there is a limit to how many from one team can score, the rankings are dynamically revised from finals. For example, if 16 score and only 8 swim in finals, the 9th through 16 points are first allocated to entries scratched from finals and then the remainder of points are assigned by order of finish in prelims for those entries that do not exceed the maximum scorers per team (if set up with a maximum).
Multi-Age Super Final
If the event is setup with Multi-Age groups for say 13-14, 15-16, and 17 & over, the Super Final would be the fastest swimmers from all age groups with the other age groups having the top remaining finalists seeded together in their respective age groups. There is also a check box to eliminate the oldest age group. If the check box for Super Final Eliminates Oldest Age group is checked, The 17 & over final in this example would be eliminated and there would be a Super Final heat, a 13-14 heat and a 15-16 heat.
Custom Finals Heat Order
This only applies if A - Final, B - Final Style is checked and allows you to alter the order of the finals. For example, if there are 3 finals, you may want the order to be B-C-A, so you enter BCA in the text box and the meet program will have B-Final heat first, then the C-Final heat, then the A-Final heat.