Seeding Profiles and Defaults

Purpose

Explain how seeding profiles set meet-wide default behavior for track and field seeding, and how those defaults flow down into meet creation, event rounds, and the seeding workspace.

Prerequisites

• You are working with an Indoor Track & Field or Outdoor Track & Field meet.
• You understand the difference between meet setup and round-by-round seeding.

What a Seeding Profile Does

A seeding profile is a reusable ruleset for T&F seeding defaults.

Profiles let you define default behavior by discipline group instead of hand-configuring every round from scratch.

Typical profile groups include:

• sprints
• middle distance
• distance
• short relays
• long relays
• vertical jumps
• horizontal jumps
• throws

Each group can carry different default rules for how heats, flights, lanes, positions, and advancement should behave.

Where Profiles Are Used

Profiles connect to three layers:

1. Settings → Seeding Profiles defines reusable profile records.
2. Meet creation chooses which profile the meet should inherit.
3. Meet settings can change that profile later for the current meet.
4. Seeding workspace resolves the effective default for the current event and round.

That means a profile can set the default starting point, while the operator still overrides specific rounds when needed.

Built-In and User Profiles

In Settings → Seeding Profiles, 2Timer provides:

• built-in profiles you can inspect and duplicate
• user-created profiles you can edit
• a default profile option for future meets

Built-in profiles are read-only. Clone one when you want to customize it for your own meet style.

Current Built-In Profiles

2Timer currently includes these built-in seeding profiles in the settings page:

NFHS Outdoor

• the default built-in profile
• outdoor high school conventions
• serpentine seeding for running events
• alleys for middle distance such as outdoor 800m
• waterfall starts for longer distance events

NFHS Indoor

• indoor high school conventions
• serpentine seeding for running events
• waterfall starts for 800m and longer events
• compact indoor distance section sizes

NCAA Indoor

• collegiate indoor conventions
• ranked or packed sections for sprints and relays
• indoor distance groups paired with double-waterfall geometry defaults
• 600m treated as a sprint boundary

NCAA Outdoor

• collegiate outdoor conventions
• ranked or packed sections for sprints and relays
• alleys for middle distance groups
• waterfall starts for longer outdoor distance events

USATF Outdoor

• open and club outdoor conventions
• serpentine or zigzag seeding aligned with World Athletics style
• alleys for middle distance groups
• waterfall starts for distance groups

USATF Indoor

• open and club indoor conventions
• serpentine or zigzag seeding
• alleys for indoor 800m and long relays where available
• double-waterfall defaults for indoor distance groups
• 600m treated as a sprint boundary

NAIA Outdoor

• NAIA outdoor championship-style conventions
• ranked or packed sections for sprints and relays
• alleys for middle distance groups
• waterfall starts for distance groups

NAIA Indoor

• NAIA indoor championship-style conventions
• ranked or packed sections for sprints and relays
• double-waterfall defaults for middle distance and distance groups
• 600m treated as a sprint boundary

These built-ins are meant to be starting points. If your conference, state association, or facility uses a different pattern, clone the closest built-in and adjust it.

What You Can Store in a Profile

Profile rules can define defaults such as:

• heat assignment behavior
• heat order
• heat fill preference
• lane or position order
• start type defaults for applicable running groups
• teammate split behavior
• team-lane template defaults
• advancement strategy
• custom advancement counts
• tie policy
• discipline-boundary cutoffs such as sprint vs middle-distance grouping

Profiles can also influence effective capacity for groups that do not always use the meet lane count directly.

How a Meet Gets a Profile

When creating a T&F meet, the basics step includes a Seeding profile picker.

That profile:

• becomes the meet’s inherited seeding default source
• is a starting point, not a lock
• can still be overridden by round-level seeding strategy

This is the fastest way to make a scholastic, collegiate, or custom meet start with the right seeding assumptions.

You can also change the meet’s selected profile later in the meet’s Edit Meet screen.

That is useful when:

• the meet was created with the wrong profile
• you duplicated a built-in and want the meet to use the customized version
• meet-wide defaults changed before seeding is finalized

Changing the meet’s profile updates what new or unsaved rounds inherit, but it does not erase explicit round strategies that were already saved.

Meet Default Versus Round Override

The easiest mental model is:

• the profile is the meet-wide default
• the round strategy is the event-specific override

Use the profile when you want most events in the meet to follow the same logic.

Use a round override when only one event or round needs something different.

Examples:

• the meet is mostly NFHS Outdoor, but one relay uses team-lane seeding
• the meet uses NCAA Indoor defaults, but one distance final needs a different section pattern
• the meet uses a custom profile, but one prelim round needs special advancement counts

Once a round has an explicit saved strategy, that round no longer simply follows the profile. The round’s own saved settings win.

How Defaults Resolve

The live seeding workspace effectively resolves rules in this order:

1. code or system defaults
2. seeding-profile discipline-group defaults
3. meet-specific defaults
4. saved event-round seeding config
5. current unsaved draft in the workspace

The important operator takeaway is simple: profile rules fill in the blanks, but explicit round settings win.

Discipline Groups Matter

Profiles are not one-size-fits-all across every event.

Examples:

• sprint groups usually behave like lane-start events
• middle-distance and distance groups may prefer alleys or waterfall starts
• field disciplines care about flights and position capacity rather than track lanes
• short relays and long relays may want different defaults

Because of that, the same meet can inherit one profile while still producing different starting rules for a 100m, 1600m, 4x400, and shot put.

Editing a Profile

Typical workflow:

1. Open Settings → Seeding Profiles.
2. Duplicate a built-in profile or create a new one.
3. Name and describe it clearly.
4. Adjust the discipline boundaries if needed.
5. Edit rules for the groups your meet format cares about.
6. Save the profile.
7. Set it as default or choose it when creating the meet.

When to Use Profiles

Use a seeding profile when:

• you run the same meet format repeatedly
• indoor and outdoor meets need different defaults
• scholastic and collegiate formats should behave differently
• you want bulk seeding to work reliably without hand-tuning every event

Do not rely on profiles alone when a specific event round has special requirements. Save a round strategy override in the workspace for that case.

Profiles and Bulk Seeding

Profiles matter most when you want the queue-level workflow to move quickly.

A strong profile helps because:

• new meets start with the right assumptions
• rounds load sensible defaults before any manual edits
• operators can save strategy once, then bulk seed many eligible events

Team-Lane Defaults in Profiles

Profiles can also support team-lane workflows for lane-start running groups.

If a discipline group should normally use team-lane seeding:

• choose team-lane lane order in that group
• set the default template if appropriate

Remember that the meet still needs team lane slots assigned on the teams themselves.

Common Problems

Verification Checklist

• The intended profile is selected when the meet is created.
• The meet settings still point at the intended profile before bulk seeding begins.
• Discipline boundaries match the meet format you run.
• Sprint, distance, relay, and field groups each have reasonable defaults.
• Rounds that need special handling are saved with explicit strategy overrides.
• Team-lane defaults are paired with actual meet-team lane slots.

Related Pages

• Seeding and Advancement
• Team-Lane Seeding
• Track and Field Setup
• Teams and Leagues

Metadata

• Last Updated: 2026-04-13
• Version: 0.2
• Status: Active