A team of 37 swimmers travelled to Bendigo on the weekend on January 16—18 to take on the best Victorian Country swimming could offer in the Vic. Country Championships. We always knew that taking on Warrnambool would be a ‘big ask’ - with their big-name swimmer like Sam Pendergast who trains with Vince Raleigh at the Monash High Performance Program at Clayton, and the 14 year old Paulka twins who are medallists and finalists in just about every event at State Championships, dual National Gold medallist Kate Lindsey and several others… Head coach, Brian Ford predicted that we may lose to Warrnambool by as much as 200 points or more.
So our ‘marginal’ defeat was a most credible result. Our swimmers pushed themselves to the limit and pulled out some wonderful swims during the three day carnival.
The meet had the usual dramas with huge queues at the lone cappuccino maker, broken down toilets and a leaking pool that threatened the early finish of the meet. Swimmers who had huge programs: Brenton raced 4.2 km, Andrew 3.8 km, Caitie 3.8 km and Melissa 3.5 km, and swimmers who competed at this Championship for the first time—Emmanuel Askew and Dylan Trembath, and swimmers who made finals for the first time—Sarah Berryman, Eoin Coughlan, Tahnee Trembath, Elizabeth Bacchetti… There were fewer dramas for our Club at this Countries though—after 2003 where we lodged 3 protests related to disqualifications, we had no DQs at all—a ‘clean run’.
The final points result was Warrnambool 1,682 points—Traralgon 1,655 points. Geelong was third with only 716 points—a huge gulf between the top two clubs and the third. Our girls won the Napthine Shield for top points at the meet with 890 points to Warrnambool’s 768. The boys came second to Warrnambool—914 to 765.
We swam in 116 finals (that’s one more than in 2003) and won 54 medals: 20 gold, 19 silver and 15 bronze. Our relays were excellent once again—wow! Do we do THAT well—congratulations Brian and coaches for the work that goes into changeovers, finishes and the rest. Outstanding result from 20 relays, we won 17 medals—7 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze—breaking event and Out-of Gippsland records along the way.
Individual swimmers are quick to point out that a team effort was responsible for the result, but we must applaud the excellent swimming by some of our ‘stars’.
Team Captain Caitie Mitchell was a stand-out performer with 9 individual finals appearances and 4 relay finals. Caitie won 5 gold medals, taking out the Open and Age 200m IM, the Open and Age 100m breaststroke and the Open 200m breaststroke. She also placed in the Open and Age 100 butterfly and Open and Age 100m freestyle. Caitie’s excellent effort was made all the more inspiring by the fact that she had sustained a groin injury the day before Countries began and every breaststroke kick was agony. Determination was abundant in that performance! Caitie placed second over all in female points.
Abbie Stockdale, our backstroke queen, won both the Age 100m backstroke and the Open 100m backstroke. Abbie was 4th in the Open 200m event.
Courtney Ford also had some excellent results—swimming in 8 finals and winning one gold, two silver, two bronze and placing no lower than 4th in the other 3 events. Courtney won the Age 200m IM, won silver in the 50m backstroke and the Open 200m Backstroke and bronze in the 50m breast and Open 100m backstroke.
Brenton Ford earned valuable points for the Club with one gold, one silver and two bronze from 10 individual finals appearances. Brent won the 400m freestyle—coming from behind in the last 100m for an exciting finish. Brent was second in the 200m freestyle and 3rd in both the Open and Age 200m IM.
Jarrod Raun won gold in the Age 100m backstroke—winning by a country mile and stamping his undeniable dominance on that event—having won gold at States as well. Jarrod won 3 silver medals as well in the Age 200m IM, the Age 100 freestyle and Age 100m breaststroke.
Ben Geard showed that he can still pull ‘em out when he needs to—winning the 50m backstroke and what many consider a ‘blue ribbon’ event—the 50m freestyle. Ben also placed third in the Open 100 m backstroke. There was a whisper that Ben may be planning to get back in the pool and actually train… If this is what Ben can achieve virtually without any training, that is undoubtedly a worthwhile plan!
Emma Heath (12) won a gold, a silver and a bronze medal in individual events. Emma won the Age 100m back, placed second in the Age 100m free (swimming a National qualifying time of 1:03.19 and securing an Out-of-Gippsland record) and third in the Age 100m breast.
Jeremy Saunders, who was belatedly awarded the 13 years Age Champion Award that was mistakenly missed at State Championships, won a silver and two bronze as a young 14 in the 14/15 age group dominated by Warrnambool stars. Jeremy’s effort was outstanding in those circumstances. He won silver in the Age 200m IM, and bronze in the Age 100m breast and 100m free.
Liz Bacchetti not only qualified for her first Country Final, but swam in 4 finals and won two medals! Liz won a silver in the Age 200m IM and bronze in the Age 100m Butterfly whilst placing 5th in the Open 200m butterfly and Age 100 freestyle. Well done, Liz!
Andrew O’Connor and Melissa Hopley swam in 7 finals each, earning valuable points and each winning one medal. Andrew won a silver in the Age 100m backstroke and Melissa won bronze in the Age 100m freestyle out of age.
Fiona Mitchell came back from uni to support the team and swam in 4 finals—taking a silver in the Age 50m breaststroke.
Scott Ashby put in a great effort in a strong age group—winning bronze in both the Age 100m Breaststroke and Age 100m Backstroke.
Tom Harlow won a bronze medal in the Age 200m IM and placed 4th in the Age 100m butterfly.
Several other swimmers made finals and earned valuable points. This is an interesting point about this year’s performance next to last year’s. In 2003 (in Warrnambool’s absence) we scored 1,684 points—whilst winning 65 medals from 115 finals. We won a heap more of the top medals—25 gold and 29 silver—which are worth a great deal of points (1,072 to be exact). This year, against strong competition, we earned 1,682 points, had 116 finalists, but only 20 gold and 19 silver worth 782 points. Whilst we were only 29 points down on last year’s over-all result, we were 290 points down on major medal points (well heck, Warrnambool's presence had to impact somehow…) But the GOOD news is that we had more swimmers making finals and figuring in the minor placings than we had in 2003. These are the up-and-coming swimmers who will be the medallists of the future.
Finalists were Anne Baker—who placed 5th in the Age 100m breaststroke, Sarah Berryman—who placed 4th in the Age 50m backstroke, Tim Blackwood—who was a credible 4th in the Age 200m IM, Eoin Coughlan—who placed 5th in the Age 50m freestyle, Simon Laird—who placed 4th in the Age 100m freestyle, Rhiannon Raun—who swam in 6 finals and placed 4thin the Age 200m IM and 5th in the Age 100m breast, the Open 200m IM and the Open 100m backstroke. Ben Smits and Tahnee Trembath each made one final.
Several other swimmers competed in individual events and came closer than ever to making the coveted finals positions—and helped make up our very successful relay teams: Joanne Hayes, Jonathan Hayes, Caitlyn Hopley, Andrew Legge, Alana McLean, Asha McKay, Erin O’Connor, Patrick O’Connor, Jesse Saunders, Kristie Smith, Dylan Trembath and Jessica Ypelaan.
Our relay teams were outstanding and always give the crowd good reason to cheer. The Open relays are wonderful and difficult events with 100m of each stroke to swim. The Traralgon girls medley team of Abbie Stockdale - Backstroke, Caitie Mitchell—Breaststroke, Courtney Ford—Butterfly and Melissa Hopley—Freestyle was unbeatable with great changeovers winning gold and a country and event record in 4:38.07. Even the B team made the final! The Freestyle team of Melissa, Caitie, Courtney and Rhiannon also win by heaps in 4:17.11. The Boys open medley team of Tim—Back , Ben– Breast, Andrew—Fly and Brenton—Free placed second as did the Freestyle team of Simon, Brenton, Andrew and Jeremy.
The 16 year old Boys teams dominated the freestyle event with Simon, Jeremy, Brenton and Andrew effecting great changes and times. 1:46.75. Their Medley team won with a great finish by freestyle leg swimmer—Simon Laird. Back—Brent, Breast—Jeremy, Fly—Andrew and Free—Simon. Gold medal winning time of 1:59.48. The Medley B team also made the final and came 6th.
16 year old girls were unlucky to be pipped by .07 in the freestyle relay. Great effort by Rhiannon, Caitie, Tahnee and Liz. The medley team also placed second in 2:11.40. Rhiannon—back, Caitie—breast, Liz—fly and Tahnee—free.
The girls 17 and Over teams were fabulous—winning both the medley and freestyle events. Courtney, Fiona, Abbie and Anne Baker had to dig deep to hold off the other teams, but came through with a great result.
The Boys team of Tim, Ben G, Jesse Saunders and Andrew Legge (always dependable at the championship events!) placed 3rd in the free and 6th in the medley—what a strong age group the 17 & overs were this year!
In the 14s the boys placed 2nd in both medley and free. Jonathan Hayes, Jeremy, Jarrod and Tom put in great efforts against a totally dominant Warrnambool combination. Well done.
The girls 14s placed 1st in the freestyle and 3rd in the medley. Great work by Emma Heath, Charley Askew, Melissa Hopley and Joanne Hayes.
The 12 year old girls placed 2nd and 3rd in the freestyle and medley respectively. Charley, Joanne H, Sarah Berryman and Emma H were fantastic in both events. The Boys - Eion, Dylan, Emmanuel and Scott Ashby did a mighty job—especially with a 10 year old (Emmanuel) in the combination—and placed 7th in the freestyle final.
It was a great three days for our Club and hearty Congratulations go to our swimmers and fabulous coaches—Brian and Mick who did a mighty job backing up to Countries after our fine States result. Well done all!
Thanks to the mums and dads who helped supply breakfast to the team after morning warm up each day—great job and much appreciated.
It was also good to see our Team Captains approach Warrnambool coach, Ross Price to congratulate him on his team’s success. What good role models and great sports are our Caitie and Ben S. I am sure that won points with Ross.