As Pearse would say, "Traralgon First ~ Daylight Second"
Country Championships 2012

The Traralgon Swimming Club once again lived up to the club motto to “rule the pool” at the recent Victorian Country Swimming Championships. The Club, fielding a strong team of 86 swimmers, won 37 gold, 22 Silver and 27 bronze medals at the championships held in Bendigo. 179 finalists amassed a record score of 3,237 points, more than doubling second placed Geelong’s total of 1,314points. Warrnambool Club placed third with 988, and host club Bendigo East won 602 points.

The depth and strength of the Traralgon Swimming Club was especially evident in the relay event results where the club won both gold and silver on numerous occasions. From twenty relay events, Traralgon won 18 gold, 11 silver and 3 bronze medals including gold in all 4 Open 4 x 100m events.

The Club won the Allan Monaghan Shield as Premier Country Swimming Club for the twelfth time since 2000. Both boys’ and girls’ teams were dominant winning the Napthine Shields for highest point score.

Senior Head Coach, Brian Ford, said the performance was outstanding – “We came to the meet with some quite challenging goals, individually and as a team. Whilst the individual results were excellent we are very proud to have achieved all our team goals in terms of winning particular relays and overall achievements. Our Coaching panel, Committee, Parents and Supporters worked overtime in the 3 day meet and are proud to win the trophy for the 12^th time. We look forward to an even bigger and brighter 2013 Country Champs in Gippsland at Sale.”

Traralgon had several outstanding swimmers including Lily Collins (16) who won 5 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals and broke numerous event records. Fourteen year old Georgia Tsebelis won 6 gold and two silver medals and broke one event record. Annie Pepper won 4 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze medal and one event record to dominate the 13 year old girls and strongly challenge in the Open events. Emily Beecroft won 3 gold medals with some outstanding swimming in the multi-disability events. Stephanie Morgan (19) won 3 gold dominating the butterfly events. Jasmine Doultree (12) won 2 gold and 1 silver medal and featured in all 5 age group finals. Jasmine broke one event record. 11 year old Ellodie Reid won two gold and 1 silver medal in 3 age events. 13 year old Erin Roberts swam in 7 individual finals and won one gold and one bronze medal. 27 year old Maasa Yamashita, who is one of Traralgon’s senior Country swimmers, won one gold and 1 silver medal in 18 & over events.

Eleven year old Alex Tsebelis was a stand-out for the boys’ team with 4 gold – winning all four of the 50m age events and breaking 2 Victorian Country and 4 Event records. Australian Institute of Sport swimmer, Jeremy Meyer added 4 gold and one silver medal in an impressive display. Jeremy dominated all three breast stroke events breaking the three event records. Brayden Waltham (19) won one gold and 2 bronze medals and broke the event record in the 50m backstroke with a time of 28.06. Senior Coach, Ben Geard (30) was inspiring as he won one gold, one silver and one bronze medal, winning gold in the highly competitive men’s 50m freestyle in 24.63.

Other individual medal winners for the club were Maggie O’Keefe (15) – 1 silver and 2 bronze, Connor O’Neill (11) – 1 silver and 2 bronze, Andrew O’Connor (24) – 1 silver and 2 bronze, Lauren Akers (11) – 1 bronze, Jordan Arthur (15) – one silver, Philip Blunt (16) – one bronze, Mikaela Cornelissen (13) – 2 silver, Taylah DaRos (14) – one bronze, Loche DeGaris (11) – one silver, Thomas Fleming (12) – one bronze, Courtney Ford (26) one silver and one bronze, Caiden Gill (13) one bronze, Brayden Haney (15) – one silver, Cameron Juha (18) – one bronze, Caitie Mitchell (24) – one bronze, Jessica Norwood (14) – one bronze, Matthew Norwood (17) – one silver, Gemma Radosavljevic (13) – one bronze, Elliot Shaw (17) – one bronze, Fabienne Schoutens (13) – one bronze, Stephanie Spehar (16) – one bronze.

Amongst the 179 finalists were Scott Ashby (20), Charley Askew (20), Sven Eriksson (23), Sophie Fitzpatrick (13), Brenton Ford (24), Daniel Gill (15), Oscar Harry (10), William Lee (15), Alice Lieshout (18), Kirsten Lieshout (20), Ian Melrose (15), Nicole Moon (16), Bridie O’Keefe (13), Mitchell O’Neill (11), Alice Peddle (11), Sam Roberts (15), Zoe Trembath (16), Chloe Trickett (12), Dylan Wyatt (20) and Mitchell Young (16).

Several Traralgon relay teams broke Country and Event records. Amongst these were the Girls 14 & under 4 x 50m freestyle team who recently broke the Australian age record. The girls, Erin Roberts, Georgia Tsebelis, Taylah Da Ros and Maggie O’Keefe easily broke the event record by over 5 seconds in 1.50.52. Country records were broken by the Girls 17/ Over Medley Relay (Courtney Ford, Caitie Mitchell, Stephanie Morgan, Maasa Yamashita) (2.08.08) and Freestyle relay (Charley Askew replacing Courtney Ford) (1.55.44); and the Boys 17/Over Medley Relay (Matt Norwood, Jeremy Meyer, Andrew O’Connor, Sven Eriksson) (1.49.61). Further event records went to the Girls 16 years Freestyle Relay (Bridie O’Keefe, Gemma Radosavljevic, Lily Collins, Sophie Fitzpatrick) (1.53.09), Women’s Open Medley relay (Annie Pepper, Lily Collins, Stephanie Morgan, Stephanie Spehar) (4.32.34); Men’s Open Medley Relay ( Brayden Waltham, Jeremy Meyer, Andrew O’Connor, Elliot Shaw) (4.01.49); Girl’s 14 years Medley relay ( Erin Roberts, Jessica Norwood, Jasmine Doultree, Bridie O’Keefe) (2.07.31); Girls 16 years Medley Relay ( Georgia Tsebelis, Jessica Norwood, Taylah Da Ros, Maggie O’Keefe) ( 2.06.77); Women’s Open Freestyle Relay (Lily Collins, Georgia Tsebelis, Mikaela Cornelissen, Stephanie Spehar) (4.07.30).

The Club now sets its sights on the Victorian Sprint Tiles in February, locally Gippsland Championships at Sale and Olympic Trials (Adelaide) in March and Australian Age Group Titles Brisbane) in April.

Ford commented – “We have had wonderful success to date this season and look forward to finishing it with some great results over the next 2 months in this fantastic Olympic year”.

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