Shepparton swimmers dip toes into competition

According to coach Michelle Swift, the weekend's outcome was positive considering the turbulent nature of the club’s calendar.

“Overall the club did well, the swimmers that have been putting in the hard work got the results,” Swift said.

“It was a difficult meet to prepare for as we had Vic Country Champs four weeks prior, so to get the team up and fresh again is a tough ask, the fact that it’s only 50 m sprints does make the task much easier.”

Among the swimmers who took to the water, Darcie Guthrie was the only Shepparton swimmer to grace the podium, claiming bronze with a 34.69 second effort in the 50 m breaststroke final.

Astoundingly, the 17-year-old’s earlier time of 34.51 in the preliminary was just 0.06 seconds off the national qualifying cut-off.

“Darcie swam an awesome personal best for her breaststroke time in the heats, but it is a time we have been targeting for her, due to Year 12 school commitments she had planned on only swimming on the Saturday and pulling out of any finals she may have made,” Swift said.

“But after going within 0.06 seconds of the national time, she decided she wouldn’t swim her other three swims that day and would concentrate on the final swim Sunday morning.

“Unfortunately, she didn’t get to add the event to her 100 and 200 swims at nationals yet, but she has until the end of March to try and meet the qualifying time.”

Despite not returning with medals, youngsters Stella Freeman and Branden Wilson proved they were not out of their depth on the big stage, recording seventh and ninth in their respective disciplines.

“For a few members of our 24-strong team it was their first state level meet, which is an experience in itself, and Branden Wilson and Stella Freeman showed out in their breaststroke events by making their first state finals,” she said.

“(It is) always an exciting achievement and something we hope to improve on for next year.”

Stacked against a talent pool packed with metro competition, Swift spoke of the invaluable impact such a meet has in exposing locals to the elite standard.

“Any state level event is an important event for our Shepparton swimmers, the qualifying times ensure that the level of competition is high and for many of our swimmers it is their first exposure to a high performance meet in the MSAC pool with touch pads and the big screen,” Swift said.

“The level of competition Victoria wide is a great opportunity to see where they rank compared to other kids their age.

“Our squad trains a maximum of six times a week and they can be competing against swimmers training anything from two sessions a week to nine sessions plus a week; it helps them recognise the commitment they need to make if they want to achieve at the higher levels.”