THE South East was strongly represented by a total of 15 swimmers at the inaugural South Australian country district championships at Clare over the March long weekend.
The squad – which comprised of swimmers from Mount Gambier, Blue Lake Y, Penola and Keith Swimming Club’s and was coached by Juile Moran – was awarded the Division 3 pennant after its impressive performance.
All swimmers achieved podium finishes and personal best’s with Nicole Moran and Elijah Stratford the top point-scorers, with 111 each.
Both Moran (400-metre, medley) and Stratford (400-metre, freestyle) swam their respective events in personal-best times.
Ethan Michielan was the only triple-figure point scorer with 106, his highlight beating his 100-metre breaststroke personal-best by 16 seconds, while Charlotte Scott (94), Alaska Lipscombe (91), Lucy Edwards (87) and Jack Richman (80) also performed well.
Other individual highlights were Edwards (19 seconds off 200-metre, medley personal-best), Della Clark (14 seconds off, 100-metre, breaststroke personal-best), Keira Flowers (eight seconds off, 200-metre, breaststroke personal-best), Alex Hudson (six seconds off, 100-metre, breaststroke personal-best), Dayna Richman (six seconds off, 400-metre, freestyle personal-best), Taya Woodall (four seconds, 100-metre, individual medley personal-best), Charlotte Scott (four seconds off, 100-metre, individual medley personal-best), Macy Richman (3.7 seconds off 50-metre breaststroke personal-best), Elly Redden (3.5 seconds off 200-metre freestyle personal-best) and Grace DeGaris (2.3 seconds 200-metre freestyle off personal-best).
A memorable moment of the campaign was when the South East team received the chance to attend dinner with Australian Olympic swimmers, Kyle Chalmers and Travis Mahoney.
The aspiring South East swimmers’ were given the opportunity to talk to the champion athletes about their journeys from junior level, to the top.
