Gippsland Swimmers Impressive at

Gippsland Swimmers performed well at the Victorian State Long Course Championships to bring home several medals and smash Gippsland and Country Records.

SGB's Samantha Wilkins (13) won 2 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze medals and placed 4th in another 3 events to win the title of 13 Years Female Age Group Swimmer. In addition, Samantha's fantastic results awarded her the over-all title of "Female Age Swimmer of the Meet".

Samantha's results were 100 free 3rd Vic 1:02.28, 200 free 4th 2:16.82, 100 back 4th 1:10.27, 200 back 4th Victorian 2:31.60, 100 breast 2nd Victorian 1:20.67, 200 breast 2nd Victorian 2:52.14, 100 butterfly 1st 1:05.21, 200 butterfly 3rd 2:30.42, 200m IM 1st Victorian 2:28.71.

The Traralgon Swimming Club were once again amongst the 10 top Victorian Clubs with 555 points and 10 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals from 50 finals. Swimmers from Traralgon also broke 7 Victorian Country Records and 27 Out of Gippsland Records.

Jeremy Saunders was belatedly named the 17-18 Years Male Age Group Swimmer of the meet. For the third time, SVI Selectors misread the results and overlooked Jeremy, awarding the trophy to another swimmer. To their credit, that swimmer and his coach tallied the points, discovered SVI's error and passed the information on to the Traralgon club and SVI. As a result, Jeremy was confirmed as the Age Group Champion - for an amazing 6th year in a row. This is an awesome result in a very difficult age group. Well done, Jeremy Saunders!

One of the highlights of the meet for the Traralgon Club was the winning of the Open 4 x 100m Breaststroke relay during the first week of competition. The club has often entered a team in both the male and female events and has won several silver medals in the past few years. This same team of boys won silver in 2007. Six seconds faster in 2008 they swam a blistering 4:29.23 to overpower Nunawading and Carey Tritons. The boys individual times were: Jeremy Saunders (1:05.85), Matthew Dinsmore (1:09.75), Ben Geard (1:08.19), and Jeremy Meyer (1:05.44). The team won the Trevor Richardson Trophy.

Ben Geard (25) faced a tough battle with the addition of a strong USA contingent, Chinese swimmers and AIS competitors in the open section. Ben had a terrific meet, swimming pbs in almost all of his events and breaking 6 Gippsland records. Ben swam in the Semi Final of the 50m freestyle breaking the Gippsland Age and Open records with a time of 23.89. He was just outside the semis in the 50 back in 21st place swimming a 28.18. In the 50 breast Ben swam in the final, placing 5th in a 30.13. In the 50 breast semi final Ben became the first Gippslander and Country Victorian to swim under 30 seconds when he clocked 29.89 breaking the Gippsland and Victorian Country records. And in the 50m fly Ben just missed the semis placing 22nd in a pb and record breaking 26.20.

Jeremy Saunders (17) again had a great meet, winning the 100 breast (1:06.10), the 200 breast (2:22.62), and the 200m IM in a thriller from Lane 9 (2:08.53). In the 200m IM Jeremy broke his own Victorian Country Age and Open Record as well as the Gippsland Age record. Jeremy broke the 17 & Over 200m Breaststroke Out of Gippsland record as well. Jeremy won silver in the 200m freestyle in a time of 1:56.87. He placed 4th in the 100m back (1:00.69) and the 400m IM (4:42.77 - Open Out of Gippsland Record), 6th in the 100m Freestyle (54.26) and 9th in the Open 100m breaststroke creating a new Gippsland 17 & Over record of 1:06.34 - which he broke again as the first leg in the 4 x 100m breaststroke relay (1:05.85).

Stephanie Morgan (16) continues to amaze with her record breaking swims in the butterfly events. Stephanie won both the 16 years 100m and 200m butterfly breaking the Gippsland age and open records and the Victorian Country Open and Age records as well. Her 100m butterfly time was 1:03.62, and her 200m time was 2:18.54.

Andrew Cameron (18) again won the 200m butterfly event creating a new Open Out of Gippsland record, breaking Daniel Bertacco's 1994 mark, as well as a Open Victorian Country record of 2:06.55. Andrew placed 3rd in the 400m Freestyle (4:11.31 - Open Out of Gippsland Record), 6th in the 200m backstroke (2:14.33), 6th in the 100m butterfly, and 9th in the 100m backstroke (1:02.06). Tuesday, January 15 was a great day for Andrew when he not only won the 200m Butterfly, but also found out that he'd been accepted into the Physiotherapy Course at Melbourne University for 2008. Congratulations Andrew!

Jeremy Meyer (16) won both the 100m (1:06.95) and 200m (2:27.34) breaststroke events. earlier in the meet, Jeremy had reset the Out of Gippsland mark for the 100m breaststroke (open and age) when he swam a 1:05.72 in the Open 100m breaststroke. Jeremy placed 9th in that event. Jeremy also won silver in the 16 years 200m IM in a time of 2:13.38. He also placed 10th in the 400m freestyle event.

Kirsten Lieshout won gold in the 100m 16 yrs breaststroke event in a time of 1:16.04. Kirsten was 5th in the 200m breaststroke.

The Traralgon boys 18 & under Medley relay team of Jeremy Saunders (28.410, Jeremy Meyer (30.08), Andrew Cameron (26.87) and Matthew Dinsmore (24.07) won a bronze medal with an overall time of 1:49.43 - breaking the age group Out of Gippsland record.

Several other Traralgon swimmers competed in finals: Elliot Shaw (4 events), Sarah Berryman (4 events), Brayden Waltham (6 events), Matt Dinsmore (1 event), as well as 7 relay teams.

There were other Gippsland finalists - Josh Perry from EGWD in the 100 breaststroke, Philip Blunt from Morwell in the 200m butterfly, and a team of girls from EGWD in a12 years relay. As TM results become available, we will know more about the over-all Gippsland results.