2012 Victorian Country Championships

Bendigo provided an outstanding venue for the 2012 Country Championships with over 650 swimmers competing in over 100 events across the weekend, making it one of the biggest occasions on Swimming Victoria’s calendar.

Competition was fierce throughout the weekend with all clubs vying for the title of Country Champions and once again swimmers showed the enormous depth of talent that Gippsland has produced.

Warragul swimmer Kate Sommerfield and Australian Institute of Sport member Jeremy Meyer  (Traralgon) were awarded the Australia Day Medallions for the best male and female performance at the Country Championships.  The awards are based on the highest FINA Points Score achieved during the Championships.

Sale Swimming Club should be congratulated for their wonderful team spirit displayed throughout the weekend.  The stands were alive with enthusiastic cheering for every club competitor and the swimmers rewarded the cheer squad with some fantastic performances.

Emily Morrison (12) was a stand out performer for the club winning gold in 100 Back and 100 Free, with Silver in 100 Fly.  Adding to the club’s medal tally was Megan Keil (11)  - silver 50 Back and Jordan Rowand (12) silver- 100 Breast;

South Gippsland Bass was well represented with Bowen Gough (13) – winning gold in 100 Back and Silver 200IM and  100 Fly.  Charlee Gough (16) swam with great determination in the 200IM to win bronze and silver 100 Fly.  Lochie Nunn (13) recorded a 3 sec PB to secure bronze in 100 Breast and Beau Van Agtmaal (16) swam strongly to win silver in 100 Breast.

Warragul swimmers certainly made their presence felt in the breaststroke events with Kate Sommerfield (18) scoring a trifecta of gold in 50 Breast, Open 100m Breast and Open 200m Breast and breaking a Victorian Country record along with two event records.  Hannah Matchett (14) swam strongly to win silver in 14-15 100 Breast and bronze in Open 100 Breast.  Sean Bulmer fought off some tough opposition winning bronze in the  Open 100 and 100 Breast.  James Murray (16) swam a huge PB to pick up bronze in 100 Breast.  Melina de Cort (11) had a great weekend winning silver in 50 Back and 50 Fly and bronze in 50 Free.  Kirstie Skinner (16) held out the opposition to win silver in 100 Back.

Morwell swimmers produced some great medal swims with Libby Townes (12) posting an amazing 9 sec PB to win silver in the 100 Back and also won bronze in the 100 Free.  Rachael Peter – bronze - 100 Breast .  Jacob Mulqueen outclassed the opposition to win gold in 100 Breast.

Traralgon again dominated the competition with a resounding win over their opponents (3237 points) and were presented with the Alan Monaghan Shield for the 12^th time.

Stand out performers for the club included Georgia Tsebelis (14) winning 6 gold medals – 100 Breast; 100 Back; 200 Back; 200 IM; 100 Free; Open 100 Back;  Lily Collins (16) with 5 gold medals -  Open 100 Free; 100 Free; 200 IM; 100 Breast; 200 Free.   Annie Pepper (13) dominated the age group events with 4 gold medals - 200 IM; 100 Free; 100 Back; 100 Fly;  as did young gun Alex Tsebelis (11) – Gold 50 Back; 50 Free; 50 Fly; 50 Breast.

Younger swimmers from the club did a wonderful job with Emily Beecroft (12) winning 3 gold medals in the multi-disability events - 50 Breast; 50 Back; 50 Free. Ellodie Reid (11) – gold in 50 Back and 50 Fly and Jasmine Doultree (12) – putting in strong performances with gold in 100 Breast; 100 Fly; 200 IM.

Senior members adding gold medals to the tally were Jeremy Meyer (20) – Gold 200 Breast; 50 Breast; 200 IM; 100 Breast.  Stephanie Morgan (19) – Gold 50 Fly; 100 Fly; 200 Fly.  Maasa Yamashita (27) – Gold 50 Back;  Brayden Waltham (19) – Gold 50 Back and master craftsman Ben Geard (30) – Gold 50 Free.

The District looks forward to the 2013 Championships which will be held in Sale.