IT was five huge days of racing for the 32 South Gippsland Bass swimmers who represented the club at the Victorian State Long Course Championship at MSAC from December 16 to 20.
The squad was extremely competitive with a number of swimmers, not only making finals, but several swimmers have come home with medals.
Other swimmers have achieved personal bests – a great effort given some only swam their qualifying times two weeks ago.
Coach Dylan was pleased with the results.
“Overall, we had some great results for the meet. It’s been hard for the swimmers, at the end of term when everyone just wants to relax to get themselves up and ready for the five days, but they have done well and I’m really pleased with their results,” he said.
“Nearly half the team swam in a final, with several others being emergencies and turning up ready to compete in case each night – that is a great result for the club. For some who only just qualified a fortnight ago, to swim around that time again is really good. They are working on their race goals and giving it their all to achieve it. To already have several of them come home with medals has been wonderful. This is the lead into a couple of big swim competitions for the swimmers and they are really leading the way.”
In a sport of milliseconds, a tenth of a second can be the difference between a swim in the final or being the emergency, as several swimmers found out, but given the large number of visitors from outside Victoria attending, they can be proud of their ranking.
The club had some swimmers qualify and compete in the long-distance races, including the 400m, 800m and 1500m swims while still competing in the shorter events.
Even between South Gippsland Bass swimmers there was some great friendly competition with swimmers ending up in the adjoining lanes or in the same heat and all eager to claim the bragging rights of being the fastest on the day.
It was all friendly though and they were all there to support each other through the nerves, the highlights and disappointments.
Swimmers included Bec Barclay, Billy Boyd, Maddi Boyd, Max Brocklesby, Gemma Cook, Claudia Croatto, Asha Chalmers, Molly Dettbarn, Billy Fisher, Maggie Fisher, Cormac Flynn, Lachie Grimes, Olivia Holmes, Josh Hunt, Sienna Hunt, Holly Hurst, Mostyn Lumsden, Issy Lynch, Rahni Matheson, Sienna Matheson, Harper McRae, Hugh Munro, Trinity O’Keefe, Cooper Quaife, Gypsy Quaife, Miah Roberts, Zac Sherar, Will Simmons, Aidan Smyth, Lara Smyth, Jarrah Tagell and Mason Wiggins.
Gemma Cook: second 50m Breaststroke, fifth 50m Freestyle, second 200m IM, fifth 50m Backstroke, fifth 100m Freestyle, second 50m Butterfly.
Claudia Croatto: 14yr third 200m Breaststroke, fourth 100m Breaststroke.
Olivia Holmes: 14yr eighth 200 Freestyle, third 100m Backstroke, third 200m Backstroke, eighth 200m IM fifth 400m IM
Josh Hunt, 15yr sixth 200m Butterfly.
Mostyn Lumsden: 16yr 10th 100m Butterfly.
Rahni Matheson: 15yr second 100m Breaststroke, third 200m Breaststroke.
Sienna Matheson: 17yr ninth 100m Breaststroke.
Cooper Quaife: 17yr sixth 200m Butterfly.
Miah Roberts: 14yr fourth 100m Backstroke, fourth 200m Backstroke and sixth 400m IM.
Zac Sherar: 15yr seventh 400m Freestyle.
Will Simmons: 14yr eighth 200m Backstroke.
Lara Smyth: 16yr 12th 1500m Freestyle.
