The Ards Blair Mayne Wellbeing and Leisure Complex set the perfect location for Larne to compete in their Division 3B Aquasprint Final against Lecale and Olympia Swimming Club.
Larne could not have started better, achieving 1st place points for all Medley Relay events.
This pathed the way for excellent performances in the individual events with Larne earning 77 points on Backstroke, 65 points on Breaststroke, 71 points on Butterfly and 69 points on Freestyle.
Larne finished the event the same way as they started – achieving 1st place points for all Freestyle Relay events.
The Aquasprint Final concluded with the final scores being 190 points to Olympia, 280 points to Lecale and 370 points to Larne.
A massive congratulations to all swimmers from all 3 clubs and a special thank youto all of the organisers and volunteers for their commitment.
Banbridge at South Lakes was the host for the last long course gala before Division 2 and Division 1 summer nationals. This was the last chance for swimmers across our squads to obtain qualification times. As expected this gala was over subscribed and very busy.
In the Development Squad, Marco Allen, Alex Rea, Alexander Murphy, and Ethan Smyth had fantastic swims, lots of PB’s, very good racing skills on display. Marco obtained an additional Division 2 swim, followed with a 3rd place medal in the 50 Breaststroke.
Not to be outdone, Annabella Cole, Megan O’Mahony and Olivia Beggs swam some amazing races against much older, experienced competition. There were PB’s across the board, with Annabella Cole taking 1st in the 50m Breaststroke and 2nd in the 50m Butterfly.
Our Junior National and Senior Sqaud swimmers were at the event to hone their racing skills, and to obtain additional swims at the summer nationals.
For the Junior National swimmers, Asha McIlroy, Eve McKeown and Owen Wasnidge all swam well with Asha getting a PB in the 50m Breaststroke.
In the National Sqaud, Sophie Doran, Grace Coyle, Daniel Beggs, Maya Niblock and Charlie Morriss were very strong across a number of events. Sophie posted a PB in the 100m Freestyle, followed by Daniel Beggs in the same event. Charlie Morriss, placed 1st in the 100 Freestyle and 3rd in the 50m Breaststroke both with PB’s.
Well done to all swimmers, we now look forward to supporting our swimmers at European Juniors, Commonwealth and European Games, and Irish Summer Nationals.
So at long last, after a trials meet in April, the commonwealth council NI has announced the aquatics team for Birmingham 2022.
An aquatics team of 11 has been selected to represent Northern Ireland
SWIMMERS Danielle Hill Daniel Wiffen Jack McMillan Victoria Catterson Grace Davison Kaitlin McCaw Mollie McAlorum
PARA SWIMMERS Bethany Firth Barry McClements Siomha Nic Bradaigh
DIVER Tanya Watson
3 #teamlarne athletes have been selected as part of this team
Danielle Hill & Daniel Wiffen were preselected having represented Ireland at the Tokyo Olympics however both achieved the Qualifying standard set for selection to the Commonwealth team at various meets in this cycle anyway.
Danielle is a fantastic ambassador for not only our squad in Larne but also our sport in Ireland. She is testament to the adage hard work pays off. If you surround yourself with the right people, trust the process and dare to dream you can achieve anything.
Daniels career has been on an upward trajectory over the last 2 years and his move to Loughborough has paid off massively with an incredible series of swims since qualifying for Tokyo.
Danielle will contest 50/100 free 50/100 back 50 flyDaniel will contest 1500 free 400 free
Kaitlyn McCaw was selected as the 3rd girl on the 4 x 100 freestyle relay.
Having taken a hiatus from the sport to concentrate on studies Kaitlyn has shown that swimming into your twenties can and should be a rewarding experience. A great message to all younger swimmers.
Kaitlyn will contest 50/100 fly 4*100 free
These three will join Oliver Gunning on the team after Oliver was confirmed as part of the para triathlete team
Oliver will contest para triathlon
Having 4 athletes on the team from a small club is a fantastic achievement for all involved but even more important, 3 out of those 4 swim IN OUR PROGRAM every single day.
Congratulations to all who have shown that with hard work the right environment and the support of a strong squad you can achieve all you wish within a club program
Well done all we cannot wait to watch you all race this summer
It was a busy weekend for #teamlarne athletes with three different meets happening and our athletes competing all over Europe.
Aquasprint
The youngest members of our club took part in their next Aquasprint meet. This time racing against Leander Swimming Club.
With the focus of these meets on short fast swimming and lots of noise and enjoyment the result is always a secondary issue.
It is fantastic to see that the junior swimmers love to swim so much and are so supportive of each other.
The future of our club is in safe hands
Glasgow International
Kaitlyn McCaw travelled to Scotland to take part in the Glasgow International Meet in Tollcross pool.
This was Kaitlyn’s 1st representative meet and comes in the middle of a heavy block of work both in the pool and finishing her dissertation for Uni.
Kaitlyn raced 4 events and qualified for 2nd swims in all 4 making for 8 swims in 3 days. The final of the 50 fly was undoubtedly the highlight
Kaitlyn is proof that if you love swimming, there is no reason why you cannot swim past school. Having taken 6 years out of the sport to concentrate on studies Kaitlyn now has a big summer ahead of her.
Mare Nostrum
Last but by no means least, Danielle travelled to Barcelona to race on Wednesday and Thursday and then on to Canet o race Saturday and Sunday
The Mare Nostrum tour is the best athletes from around the world racing head to head over 3 meets in 8 days.
Once again D was swimming through these meets with her eyes set on a much bigger summer.
Contesting in 4 events at each meet and making finals in them all ment that Danielle raced 16 swims in 5 days. #tough
If Kaitlyn is proof that if you don’t have to stop swimming at the end of school, Danielle if the role model that hard work will always pay off
Larne kicked off their third Aquasprint of the season against Olympia Swimming Club at the Falls Road Leisure Centre in the blistering sunshine.
The absence of diving blocks certainly did not affect the performance of the swimmers, with the final scores being 170 to Olympia and 230 to Larne!
A massive congratulations to all swimmers who swam their hearts out and had great fun. It is very pleasing to see a fantastic team spirit surrounding the entire group.
A special thank you to Olympia Swimming Club for being terrific hosts, as well as all the volunteers for their commitment to running a successful event.
Larne was back racing again, with the junior end of the club. Swimmers from the Academy, Development, Competitive and Junior National sqauds were competitive swimming at the Lisburn Christmas meet.
This meet was hosted in Lisburn, and was very well supported. With less than two weeks until Christmas, the excitement of racing and wearing our new club tshirts meant a very exciting meet was in store.
A huge congratulations to every swimmer as they all posted Personal Best times in every event!
Iona Tweed, Maddy McDowell and Lucy Maxwell got us underway in the 25m Backstroke, with all 3 girls dropping over +10 second PB’s, along with Megan O’Mahony who placed 4th. Annabella Cole took Gold, placing 1st in her age group going sub 20 seconds.
The boys were up next, Connor Sidwell, Oliver Niblock, Issac Lee and Issac Prince all firing off PB’s. Oliver placed 15th overall in a very strong and competitive field.
In the breaststroke, Annabella Cole placed forth missing out on a medal by 3 hundredths of a second. The boys again were up against very tough opposition but all had very good PB’s which will please their coaches.
Oliver Niblock and Isaac Lee showed some good skills in the 25m butterfly. Maddy McDowell placed 15th in the 11 year old category racing for the first time, very impressive along with Lucy Maxwell and Iona Tweed who placed very respectfully. Topping off the girls were Megan O’Mahony in 7th and Annabella Cole taking silver just missing out top spot.
The 25m Freestyle events were hottly contested with some huge PB’s from Maddy McDowell, Iona Tweed, Isaac Lee and Conor Sidwell. Oliver Niblock, placed 20th, with Isaac Prince finishing 7th , followed by Megan O’Mahony taking 3rd and Annabella Cole sharing 1st with a joint equal time of 15.90. Session two, started with a bang when Louisa Humphries ripped out a 100m backstroke placing 1st with the fastest time of the entire day across all age groups narrowly missing out on an Irish Short Course qualification time. Alex Rea and Owen Wasnidge placed within the top 20 of their age groups demonstrating good skills and big PB’s.
The boys 50 butterfly produced 3 top 20 swims from Keegan McLoughlin, Ciaran Laverty and Owen Wasnidge, narrowly, missing out on a top 10 place by 3 tenths.
The breaststroke was another hottly contested event, which saw Marco Allen place 6th, Evan Houston 10th, Ethan Smyth 15th , Ciaran Laverty 22nd , and Owen Wasnidge 24th with Asha McIllroy swimming a very good race placing 27th out of 46.
In the 50m Freestyle, Mia Grills placed with the top 20, along with Marco Allen, Ryan Cleland and Oliver Smyth – who narrowly missed out on a sub 30 second swim.
The final session got underway with the 50m backstroke with Mia Grills placing 16th, and Alex Rea placing 7th with an 8 second PB.
Mia and Asha were back in action in the 100m Freestyle, with the girls separated by only 3 tenths in a very good race. In the boys event Dawson Taylor placed 20th with a very good PB, followed by massive PB’s from Owen Wasnidge (-31.22), Ciaran Laverty (-28.14) and Evan Houston (-25.08).
The last two events saw Mia Grills and Asha McIllroy go head to head in the 50m breaststroke with Asha taking 13th and Mia 14th split by 0.98 seconds. Joining the girls were Evan Houston in 6th, Ethan Smyth in 11th, Ryan Cleland 14th and Owen Wasnidge 15th within their age groups.
It is fantastic to see our members getting back into the racing pool again and the coaches where all delighted with how everyone performed. The skills, effort, commitment and determination was evident.
It will be great to see how far you all can go when we race again after Christmas.
Back to training and working on the skills that the coaches are teaching you so that next time we can see event better swimming
The 1st Championship meet after the restart of competitive swimming was held in the new Lisnasharagh Complex in Belfast from the 5th -7th November 2021.
25 swimmers from Team Larne contested the event.
(Full results for the club are at the bottom)
Day one
14 events on day one. Heats in the morning and finals at night. The relays (4×50 Free for men and women) being swam as HDW in the morning session.
The Girls relay narrowly missed out to an Irish senior record display from Ards. The Boys followed this up with a 5 place finish for the junior team and a !st title of the weekend for the senior team.
Of the 48 swims on day one the team recorded 24 Personal Best swims and claimed 19 final places. Not bad for a meet that we are swimming through as we aim to maintain volume and intensity across the week with our sight firmly set on Irish SC and World Championships.
Womens Freestyle relay
In the evening session Morgan picked up the 2nd title of the day in the 200 Breast with his best ‘in season’ swim.
Ele Donegan produced a lifetime best to finish 2nd in the 400 Free and followed this up with a win in the 100 fly in a new club record time.
Danielle Hill and Conor Ferguson both doubled up in the 50 free and back to take the total number of titles to 7 for the 1st day.
Kaitlyn and Ele (50 free), Jericho and David (200IM), Luke (100 Fly), Thomas and Morgan (50 free) and Louisa and Evan(50 Back) rounded out the finalists.
Louisa Humphries, David Leggett and Charlie Morriss also swam Qualifying times for the Irish Short Course meet in December.
Daily total – 7 Senior titles
Day 2
13 events on day 2 with heats again in the morning followed by finals at night. The morning session saw #teamlarne claim 2 more titles with the mixed medley and mixed free relays to take the total number of titles to 9.
31 individual swims today resulting in 11 Personal bests and 16 finals spots.
The 200 free final was contested by Ele and Ellie who both produced seasons best swims (Ellie swimming a PB time) and finished 4th and 7th respectively. The male events saw Thomas and Jericho race to 3rd and 7th.
Title number 10 for the team came courtesy of Danielle in the 200 back while Lorcan claimed a really strong 2nd place with a big PB swim in the mens event.
Morgan made it 11 with the 100 Breaststroke in another season best.
After a world class start in the IM a technical issue and a cramp lead to Danielle scratching from 100 IM before stepping up to claim title number 12 in the 50 fly. Ele and Kaitlyn also featured strongly in the final with Kaitlyn winning her 1st Ulster individual medal and Ele finished just outside the podium places.
Morgan finished the day off with title number 13 in the 50 flywhile Luke finished with another PB in the same final.
Mens Freestyle Relay
Daily Total – 6 Senior titles
Day 3
12 events on day 3 with heats again in the morning followed by finals at night. The morning session saw #teamlarne claim another relay title with the mens free while the womens free took 2nd behinds ards.
24 individual swims in the morning, 7 personal bests and 10 final places earned.
The women’s 100 back was a comfortable win for Danielle and she followed it up with the 100 free in her 18th race of the weekend.
Lorcan claimed a bronze in a fantastic new PB time in the 100 BC.
Morgan made it a clean sweep in the men’s breaststroke with a win in the 50 breaststroke where Ben just missed out on a medal finishing 4th and Jericho took the Junior Title.
Mens Freestyle Relay
Kaitlyn finished 7th in 50 breaststroke just outside the PB she set in the heats in the morning.
Ele completed a clean sweep of the female fly events for the club with her 2nd title in a new club record time in the 200 fly. and followed up with a 6th place in the 100 free.
Thomas brought the curtain down on a great meet for Larne with a 5th place finish in the 100 free.
Womens 100 Free
Daily Total – 5 Senior titles
Over the weekend as a club we managed to win 18 out of 40 events.
124 individual swims
63 personal bests
8 club records were set
Kaitlyn McCaw – 50 Breast stroke
Morgan Berryman – 50 Breast stroke
Morgan Berryman – 100 Breaststroke
Morgan Berryman – 200 Breaststroke
Danielle Hill – 50 Fly
Danielle Hill – 100 IM
Ele Donegan – 100 Fly
Ele Donegan – 200 Fly
Congratulations Louisa H, Charlie M and David L on qualifying for Irish SC in December, We now have a fantastic 21 swimmers Qualified.
TeamLarne 