The Traralgon Swimming Club took all before it at the Victorian All Junior Country Swim Championships held at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre last weekend.
With heats held on the Saturday and only the top 10 fastest swimmers progressing to the finals on the Sunday morning, competition for the coveted finals spots proved fierce. At the end of the heat session, 33 of 48 TSC swimmers at the championships swam into a spot in the finals.
Fourteen of the club’s swimmers qualified as the fastest swimmer for the Sunday finals, so anticipation was high the club could return a record gold medal haul.
In the end, 11 new Victorian All Junior champions including four dual champions from the TSC were crowned – Xavier Haberl (10 years boys butterfly), Jordyn Cargill (10 years boys 50m breaststroke), Thomas Bouquet (13 years boys 50m breaststroke), Locke DeGaris (14 years boys 50m butterfly and freestyle), Molly Cargill (9 years girls 50m butterfly and freestyle), Sophie Waller (11 years girls butterfly), Emily Goode (12 years girls backstroke and breaststroke), Sadira Snell (13 years girls butterfly and freestyle), Lylana Anstee (13 years girls breaststroke), Lily Zee-Verner (14 years girls breaststroke) and Melina deCort (14 years girls freestyle).
Of the champions, Haberl produced his best fly swim of the season at the right time to dominate the event.
Haberl also won silver in the breaststroke and freestyle.
Bouquet surprised his rivals with a winning swim in the breaststroke from lane eight, Sadira Snell returned to form with outstanding PB swims in both her events, and Lylana Anstee managed what has been an elusive gold with a tremendous PB swim in the breaststroke.
Anstee capped off her outstanding weekend of swimming with silver in the freestyle and a bronze in the backstroke. Goode continued where she left off from the Gippsland championships with strong wins in the breaststroke and backstroke, and a close-up bronze in the freestyle. By weekend’s end, TSC had produced a remarkable medal haul of 36 that, in addition to the 15 gold, included 15 silver and six bronze medals.
