The Sydney Uni Swimming Club was extremely impressive at the recent NSW State Age 12 and under Championships and the NSW State Age 13 and Over Championships, securing a total of 12 medals and a host of personal bests across both meets.
“The younger swimmers have really stepped up at training over the summer and this has shown through with their results at State,” said SUSF Swim Program Age Group Coach, Leanne Thompson.
“Moving forward, they are now all setting their sights on Australian Age for 2015.”
The racing began on the 17th and 18th January at the NSW State Age 12 and Under Championships at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. Represented by six individual swimmers and 14 relay competitors, Sydney Uni finished the weekend’s races with an incredible 69% personal best rate.
Each swimmer claimed at least one personal best, while some smashed their personal best times by up to 10 seconds.
Jake Andrews, Miles Parhash and Maddy Fairlie all achieved top 10 performances. Fairle was particularly outstanding, winning two gold’s and two bronze medals alongside two other top 10 finishes.
In the relays, the boys 10 and under relay team narrowly missed top 10 placings in both the freestyle and medley relays, finishing 12th in both events, with some very outstanding racing from the junior swimmers.
Following the successful 12 and Under Championships, Sydney Uni’s older age group swimmers stepped out to compete at the 2014 NSW State 13-18 Championships staged from January 20-25.
Sarah Wellfare had three outstanding races in the girls aged 14 years 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events, gaining huge personal bests and clearing out to win her heat in style in each event.
Several members of the Sydney Uni High Performance program – including Alicia Caldwell (one gold and two bronze), Jesse King (one silver and one bronze) and SUSF Elite Athlete Program scholarship holder (Bachelor of Resource Economics) Kazimir Boskovic (one gold) – had good hit outs leading up to the NSW State Open in late February and the Nationals in April, gaining several top 10 performances.
Jacob Hansford and Amelia Gould competed for other swimming clubs (Atlantis and SOPAC respectively) but have been training with Sydney Uni and both athletes performed strongly.
Hansford won three gold medals and had four other top five finishes in the men’s 17/18 years age group, while Gould finished with a bronze in the women’s 17/18 years 800m freestyle.
The culmination of the meet was the Open Boys retaining their title in a closely fought battle with Trinity to win the 10 x 50m freestyle relay. Led in style by Te Haumi Maxwell, Sydney Uni never looked back, with Boskovic bringing them home a shade quicker than their winning time of last year.
SUSF & NSWIS Swimming Program of Excellence Senior Coach, Scott Talbot heaped praise on SUSF Swim Program Age Group Coach, Leanne Thompson, saying “Leanne has done a great job with the team over the summer period and the results achieved at the Championships certainly reflect that.”
“We had five different athletes compete in the 17/18 years age group this year and all of them managed to get on the podium at least once.
“The age group program had a great showing with several athletes making the finals, compared to only one athlete making the finals last year.”
SUSF High Performance Manager, Matthew Phelps was also pleased with the recent results, saying “The success of the age group program is part of our development plan to provide a pathway for home grown talented swimmers at Sydney Uni.”
Sydney Uni swimmers will next turn their attention to the National Age Swimming Championships and National Open Swimming Championships in April.
