The Queanbeyan Leagues Swim Club (QLSC) celebrated its most successful season ever with fantastic results in indoor and open water swimming.
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In a club first, Andrew Catchpole, Lexi Boulton and Claire Molineux represented the QLSC at the National Age Championships in Sydney this week.
But as a whole the QLSC is celebrating a number of swimmer's individual successes.
"We hadn't sent anyone to nationals since the 1990s and this year we sent three swimmers, for the first time ever we sent two children to the nation open water championships," club president Jane Nichols said.
"But all of the kids this year improved, there were a lot of (personal bests) and almost all of our kids went to states.
"We're only a small club, with about 40 to 50 swimmers, but we had some huge results thanks to our coaches, swimmers and of course their parents who take them to training every day.
"They are the nicest kids and they deserve the rewards they are getting."
Many of the swimmers are medalists and finalists at the various events the club attends and Nichols said although the club has not had any QLSC swimmers turned Olympians she is confident it is fast approaching.
"The ACT sent 13 kids to nationals and three of them were from Queanbeyan," she said.
"They're so focused and driven, if they can keep swimming at the level they're at now they're definitely a chance at Olympic trials."
Catchpole (14-year-old boys) is ranked first in Australia for 50m Breaststroke and 100m Breaststroke and second for 200m Breaststroke, Molineux (13-year-old girls) is ranked 6th in Australia for 50m Backstroke, 12th for 100m Backstoke, 7th for 200m Backstroke, 24th for 200IM and 25th for 400IM; and Lexi Boulton (14-year-old girls) is ranked 23rd in Australia for 50m Breaststroke and 22nd for 200m Breaststroke.
Swimmers are in the process of a well deserved break and will return to training in late April.
State championship results:
Claire Molineux (Gold medal- 100m Backstroke, Silver medal- 200m Backstroke, Bronze medal- 100m Butterfly, Bronze medal- 50m Backstroke, 4th- 200m IM and 8th- 400m Freestyle)
Brad Rauter (Silver medal- 100m Backstroke, Silver medal- 100m Breaststroke, Silver medal- 100m Free, 9th- 200m Breaststroke and 10th- 200m IM)
Andrew Catchpole (Gold medal- 400m IM, Gold medal- 50m Breaststroke, Gold medal- 100m Breaststroke, Gold medal- 200m Breaststroke and Silver medal- 200m IM)
Lexi Boulton (Silver medal- 100m Breaststroke, Bronze medal- 200m Breaststroke, 7th- 50m Breast
Tate Sissian (8th- 50m Butterfly)
Anita Manning (5th- 100m Breaststroke)
Nik Trajkovski (6th- 100m Backstroke and 7th- 100m Freestyle)
Emily Siciliano (9th- 100m Butterfly)
Photos: Supplied.
