Swim trio take top placings

By Paul Pickering
A TRIFECTA in the boys’ 17-18 years 100m backstroke was among many highlights for the Casey TigerSharks at the Victorian Age Championships over the weekend.
Team-mates Matson Lawson, Josh Beaver and Craig Watson stood side-by-side on the dais on Saturday night, having made a one-club affair of the final.
TigerSharks coach Ben Hiddlestone described that race as the stand-out result for his club, which was on track for a strong overall finish as the event entered its fifth of six days as the News went to print on Tuesday.
“It’s always good to see one, two, three up there on the medal dais,” Hiddlestone said on Tuesday morning.
“But we’ve certainly had a lot of great swims and personal-best times.”
The TigerSharks, who finished third in the overall club standing last year, occupied that same position going into Tuesday’s events, trailing only powerhouse clubs Melbourne Vicentre and Nunawading.
Other highlights from the meet included 14-year-old Carly Mansfield’s gold medal performances in the 50m and 100m freestyle, while 12-year-old Matthew Shaw produced a double of his own in the 100m and 200m butterfly events.
Youngster Jake Duggan, 10, produced another stand-out swim by upsetting his older opponents in the 11-and-under 50m freestyle, recording a personal-best time of 29.9 seconds to stamp himself as a star of the future.
Hiddlestone said he was confident that Casey could hold off a likely challenge from local rival Haileybury Waterlions to retain third place in the club standings. That would represent a significant achievement for the emerging TigerSharks.
“Nunawading and Melbourne Vicentre are much bigger operations,” he said.
“They’ve got twice the amount of swimmers we have, so if we can hold third and even improve upon our points score (from last year), then maybe three or four years down the track we’ll get enough numbers to compete against the larger clubs.”
For a full wrap of the TigerSharks results, pick up the News in the new year.