A looong but highly successful Vic Open has come to a close, and what a huge four days it was! Wait, was it four days? Hard to keep track at this point.
A huge congratulations to everyone who competed and thank you so much to our TMs Nat Hood and David Hay for keeping our team well-oiled and running smoothly. Thank you to my fellow coaches for their endless emotional energy and ability to find that little better extra in the face of a 26-hour work weekend.
To our junior team members – well done on exceptional performances in competition against the best 12-year-old athletes in Victoria. Over 80% PBs, 18 individual top 10 finishes, and 8 medals between 12 athletes is an incredible effort. Your results here will contribute to our total points achieved at Vic Age in two weeks.
To our seniors – we set a goal years ago now to take this team to new heights, and one day compete successfully at an open level. This weekend was a huge step towards that goal – it is crystal clear that we can compete with the very best Victoria has to offer. Keep doing what you’re doing and look forward to the next opportunity to show our stuff! MLC finished second overall on the point score – a result we achieved for the first time in my memory at least, and a clear example of what we’re capable of.
As a coaching team, it was interesting identifying where our strengths were, and where our focuses needed to be in the next season. The biggest point that jumped at us was the huge steps we’ve taken on fitness! In particular, comments were made by other teams about how our swimmers always seemed to have another gear and could hold a pace forever. This was showcased in our distance events. MLC won gold in 3/4 800m freestyles this weekend (with a narrow silver in the 4th), and gold in 2/2 1500m freestyles.
We finished the meet with a total of 30 medals: 12 Gold, 7 silver and 11 bronze. Congratulations to all our medalists:
GOLD MEDALISTS & VICTORIAN CHAMPIONS:
Izzy Osborn 50 fly
Noah Millard 400 free
Mackie Hunter 800 free
Izzy Osborn 200 fly (MLC Age & Open record)
Sophie Hall 12yo 800 free (MLC record)
Harry Hay 1500 free
Mixed 4×50 medley relay – James Lewena (MLC record), Charlie Millard, Izzy Osborn, Toby McOmish
Alannah Torrance 100 IM
Izzy Osborn 100 fly
Mackie Hunter 1500 free
Lev Dyshliuk 12yo 800 free (MLC record)
Ruby Halliday MC 100 brst
SILVER MEDALISTS
James Lewena 100 back
Alfred Han 12yo 200 back
Women 4×100 medley relay – Lily Koch, Charlie Millard, Izzy Osborn, Alannah Torrance
Harry Hay 800 free
Alfred Han 12yo 100 back
Alfred Han 12yo 100 IM
Ruby Halliday MC 50 brst
BRONZE MEDALISTS
12yo boys 4×50 free relay – Alfred Han, Nico Robson, Lev Dyshliuk, Tullie Williams
Mixed 4×50 free relay – Noah Millard, Toby McOmish, Charlie Millard, Alannah Torrance
Alannah Torrance 200 IM
Sam Mathieson 200 brst
12yo boys 4×50 medley relay – Nico Robson, Alfred Han, Lev Dyshliuk, Tullie Williams
Sophie Hall 12yo 400 free
James Lewena 50 back
Alannah Torrance 400 IM
Women 4×100 free relay – Alannah Torrance, Charlie Millard, Amrita Subramaniam, Mackie Hunter
Ruby Halliday MC 100 back
Ruby Halliday MC 100 IM