Wow! What a busy few weeks it has been for the Corowa Sharks.
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The Ovens and Murray individual Championships on February 6 and 13 saw five swimmers achieve PB’s in 16 out of a total of 17 entries!
Special mention to Sophia Graham who achieved three placings for medals - a first, second and third, with her other two events garnering her a fourth-place ribbon each.
Sophia’s brother Alex also achieved a second and third place, however arguably his best performance on the day wasn’t a place getter but a huge eleven second personal best (PB) in the 50 backstroke (for reference, at this age a two second PB is good).
Rylee, Nick and Ethan also performed well chalking up many PB’s between them, with Nick’s 25 second PB in the 200 free the most outstanding of these (five seconds would be considered good).
The Club’s last and best-attended Club Night for the season was held on Friday, February 25. The swimmers were really enjoying themselves, also welcoming some swimmers from another local club Rutherglen which is also producing some outstanding young swimmers.
The club’s award recipient for the last Club Night was Lucas Bellette, who took on the challenge of a longer event and increased his event participation. Like many of our swimmers Lucas has improved dramatically in technique over the season. This has impacted on times as was evidenced Sunday, February 27 at the Ovens and Murray District Swimming Association’s heats for the All Junior Country Competition.
The PB blitz continued at this meet as twenty-four Corowa swimmers competed in the heats which were conveniently held at the Corowa Aquatic Centre, hosted by Wodonga City Swim Club. This is an excellent turn-out for our relatively small family-oriented club.
What was so impressive about the swimmers at this meet was their much-improved times and distinct lack of disqualifications.
Breaststroke and butterfly are two very technical strokes the execution of which can elude most swimmers for up to three years of training, yet a number of our swimmers managed to chalk up their first or second time for these strokes on the board, after being disqualified a number of times at other meets.
All Junior heats is a tough meet to ‘pass muster’ in these strokes as the stroke judges are very strict, this being a selection meet for a State competition.
Thank you to all the swimmers who put in an excellent effort, and to the parents who helped on the day.
Special mentions to the following swimmers who will be heading to Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre on March 18 and 19 for the semi-finals and (hopefully) finals:
Katelin Baker – all strokes
William Bergin – backstroke and freestyle
Sophia Graham – Sophia Graham – all strokes
Oliver Just – all strokes
Cooper Patten – backstroke and freestyle
Nicholas Tukuniu – all strokes
Franklin Wright – freestyle
Alex Graham – butterfly and breaststroke
In addition almost every one of our swimmers achieved PB’s at the heats, with Stella Patten, Charlie Marks, Rylee Tukuniu, Lucas Bellette, Ethan Marks and Hugh Bergin all clocking up PB’s of eight seconds or more. PB of the day went to Lucas Bellette with a massive 30 second PB in his backstroke.
On Sunday, March 6 the Sharks had their final local district meet of the season left to contend: the Oven and Murray Championship Relay Meet.
Making up relays for the day is a challenge as it is but Covid-19 isolations required a lot of work by all involved, especially the O&M’s Sally Whitehouse who had the unenviable job of inputting all the changes on the day. Thanks to Sally and all the O&M officials for their selfless work on Sunday and all season.
The ‘relay meet’ as it is generally called, is a favourite for swimmers, but Corowa hasn’t sent teams for about five years, not having had enough competitive swimmers who qualify during that period.
How wonderful it was to be able to send nineteen swimmers and enter seventeen teams!
Some swimmers had more than four swims which was a big ask so special thanks to Harry, Alex, Nick, Cooper and Tahli for their efforts, and to Tayan for waiting around to help us out in the ten-person relay at the end of the day (Tayan had no one in his age group for the regular relays so couldn’t get a swim earlier in the program).
The club’s best result on the day came from the girl’s 10&u Medley team of Matilda Park (backstroke), Rosie Hicks (breaststroke), Sophia Graham (butterfly) and Rylee Tukuniu (freestyle) earning themselves a well-deserved bronze medal each.
At the Club Championships, the club farewelled Marks’ family who are off to Italy to visit family then the wider world for an extended family holiday. The club wished them buon viaggio and shared a cake together after the day’s events.
The final Club Championship night is this coming Friday, March 12. Friday swimming will cease after this and training will continue Monday to Thursday in Corowa until the pool closes on March 31, and on Mondays at Howlong until the pool closes for the season.
Corowa Sharks Swim Club is now taking expressions of interest for our winter squads which will commence in May, after a well-earned break. If you are interested in these limited-size squads please message the Corowa Sharks Facebook page or call Sharon on 0458 080 405.
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