I added this above the plugin on the edit page:
<?php
$_POST["distance"] = $Recordset6->getColumnVal("race");
$_POST["heats"] = $Recordset6->getColumnVal("shirtselect");
?>
That sets the form element values as if they were submitted before it loads so the plugin is filtered properly. Since I noticed the plugin was filtered by the value of: $_POST["distance"]
Then I added code to the plugin to select the correct option based on the value of $_POST["heats"];