Traralgon Swimmers Dominate at Victorian Titles

4 Gold, 7 Silver, 5 Bronze Medals; 2 Victorian, 5 Country, 17 Out of Gippsland Records; 56 Personal Best times from 72 events swum by 19 swimmers (9 who won individual medals) was the outstanding return from the Traralgon Swimming Club at the recent Victorian Age Short Course Titles held at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.

Standout performers were Jeremy Meyer and Jeremy Saunders who each broke Victorian Records in the 17 years and 18 years and over 200 metre Breaststroke respectively.

17 year old Meyer recorded the 4^th fastest time ever by a Victorian in winning the 17/18 years event in 2.13.78. 18 year old Saunders finished second in 2.16.77 both high quality swims considering they had to reswim the event 15 minutes after their first attempt resulted in the main and backup timing malfunctioning.

Meyer finished the meet with 2 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals also winning the 100 Breast (1.02.13), second in the 200 Individual Medley and third in the 100 and 400 Medleys with an additional 2 Country and 5 Out of Gippsland records.

Saunders won gold in the 100 Individual Medley (57.07), silver in the 100 Freestyle (51.56) and bronze in 100 Breaststroke (1.03.79). He also finished with an additional 2 Country and 4 Out of Gippsland Records.

16 year old Kirsten Lieshout won the 100 Breaststroke in 1.13.10 following on from her Country and Out of Gippsland record at the Open titles of 1.12.68.

16 year old Stephanie Morgan won silver in the 100 Butterfly event turning at the 50 metre mark in 29.77, a 16 year old and Open Out of Gippsland record, finishing in 1.02.68, also Gippsland as well as a Victorian Country mark.

18 year old Matt Dinsmore swam the 50 Freestyle in the 2^nd fastest time ever recorded by a Gippslander of 23.51 finishing with a silver.

16 year old Sarah Berryman and 15 year old Alice Lieshout had a wonderful meet with Sarah winning a silver medal in the 100 Individual Medley (1.06.61), a qualifying time to compete at the Australian Championships in 2 weeks time in addition to the 16 year old and Open records established. Alice picked up her first State medal with a Bronze in the 100 Backstroke (1.07.86).

16 year old Brayden Waltham qualified to swim at the Australian Short Course titles with an impressive 57.85 and bronze medal for the 100 Butterfly. This swim also gave him a Gippsland record and he followed up with another in the 400 Medley in the last event of the day.

The 9^th and final medalist for the Club was 11 year old Georgia Tsebelis who swam many personal bests and finished the weekend with a silver in the 50 Freestyle in the time of 29.76.

Many other Traralgon swimmers had a successful meet. Daniel Golcic, Elliot Shaw, Cameron Juha, Tim Bedford, Sam Roberts, Jye Thompson, Jayden Askew, Charley Askew, Matt Norwood and Thomas Morrison all recorded up to 5 Personal Bests each and represented the Club with pride.

The Club now has 10 swimmers qualified to compete with the nation’s best at the Australian Short Course Championships to be held in Melbourne from Saturday 20th to Wednesday 24th September, 2008. Brenton Ford, Jeremy Meyer, Kirsten Lieshout, Jeremy Saunders, Andrew O’Connor, Sarah Berryman, Brayden Waltham, Matt Dinsmore, Stephanie Morgan and Ben Geard will each compete in individual and relay events at the premiere short course meet in Australia. The Club is looking for its first ever finalist with a number of semi finalist positions possible. Victorian and Australian representative teams will be picked for the 15 – 18 year olds so the opportunities to travel will also be available.

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