Traralgon Swimming Club

11 year old Traralgon swimmer, Emily Beecroft, was the standout performer for the Traralgon Swimming Club at the recent Victorian Open & Swimmers With Disability Short Course Championships held at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. Emily competed in 4 events finishing with a silver in the 50m Breast, bronze in the 50m Freestyle and 4 personal best times. She was the youngest competitor in the competition racing against swimmers many years older than her and these efforts were well applauded by the Club’s Senior Coach, Ben Geard:

“Emily has a fantastic will to win and coupled with her outstanding training , attitude and work ethic , will be an outstanding representative of the club for many years to come. To win silver and bronze in her first major state competition was great reward for consistency and preparation in and out of the pool. “

16 year old Lily Collins finished a very successful August – September period with a bronze medal in the Open 50m freestyle against the best sprinters in Victoria. Following numerous Gold, Silver and Bronze medals at Victorian Country and State Age Short Course Championships, Lily was selected in the Victorian Team to compete in the Australian Teams Championships in Canberra. Here she broke the Gippsland 16 years and Open 50m breast stroke record no fewer than 3 times in the Skins competition recording 32.36, 31.95 and then in the final, 31.88 finishing second behind Jessica Hansen, the Australian Age Group Champion. Coach Geard was impressed with Lily’s performances:

“Lily has been swimming with us now just over 12 months and whilst her performances have been outstanding she has still so much more to develop with her stroke and strength and conditioning. She has a very exciting swimming career ahead of her.”

13 year old Annie Pepper competed well and broke the Gippsland 14 years and Open 50m fly record with a time of 29.30. 11 year old Jasmine Doultree also broke the 12 years 200m Fly Gippsland record with a time of 2.43.29 and Mitch Young broke the 16 years record in the 50m Fly with a 26.43.

Traralgon Girls Relays were also successful in breaking the Gippsland 4 x 100 Freestyle and Medley records for the 16 years and Open age groups. Lily Collins, Taylah Da Ros, Maggie O’Keefe and Erin Roberts swam 4.06.13 to break the Freestyle record by 3 seconds and Mikaela Cornelissen replaced Taylah in the Medley to break the record by a bare 0.09.

With the Short Course competition phase of the season now complete Swimmers are now headed to the holidays with 18 participating in a Swim Camp at Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast and a further 32 at the Urban Camp in Melbourne. Senior Head Coach, Brian Ford, says the Club has completed its season goals to date and is looking forward the next half of the swimming calendar.

“We have had the best start to a season so far with over 130 swimmers training and competing, great success locally winning the La Trobe City Cup, more success regionally winning the Country Championships and finishing with our best result ever at Victorian titles with 7^th and our Girls coming a strong 3^rd. With over 50 swimmers participating in Camps this will lay the foundations for what will hopefully be another successful long course year – we can’t wait!”

SPONSORS

O'Connor Transport