2006/2007 Season Review - Features | Merrylands A.S.C. Inc.

2006/2007 saw some of the closest finishes in club competitions for years along with some excellent representative results as the club marked the completion of another successful season.

The 2006/2007 season again began with some brilliant October weather. Despite the good weather, numbers were down slightly at both the weekly Saturday morning races and weekday training sessions.

The club's Learn to Swim program however continued to increase in popularity and numbers, with 74 children enrolled while Brittany Johnson completed her Austswim Qualifications to increase our Instructor ranks.

In the club competitions, some members were able to successfully defend their titles while some events saw the emergence of new champions. "The Swimmers" backed up their 2005/2006 win in the Relay Competition to take out the title for the second time. In the Senior Handicap, Peter Johnston topped the pointscore for the 6th time to equal Glenda Wood's record number of titles.

In one of the closest finishes in years, Brittany Johnson won the Champion of Champions Award for the fourth year in a row, just 15 points ahead of Peter Johnston. Brittany won both her Age and Open Championships, placed second in the Female Graded Pointscore and set 9 club records. Brittany also represented the club at the Metropolitan Championships.
Meanwhile, Taysha Wilson was presented with the Jack Smart Encouragement Award after steadily improving over the season.

In the Graded Pointscore, Peter Johnston finished with the highest number of points overall. Mitchell Burt, was awarded the Michael Rossek Trophy for the highest placed Junior Boy in the Graded Races Pointscore while Amber Johnson received the Ronald Exley Trophy for the highest placed Junior Girl. Amber's victory in the Graded Pointscore further extended her record number of wins in the competition to have now won the competition on 5 separate occasions.

2006/2007 saw some changes to our representative teams while the number of swimmers representing the club remained about the same. During the season we had swimmers competing at all levels up to and including State Age Championships with our teams consisting of a mixture of new and experienced swimmers. Some swimmers returned to teams after not qualifying in previous years, some were rookies, qualifying for their first representative team while others added new events to their roster or qualified for new teams.
Anthony Ventra qualified for the State Championships for the first time while Amber Johnson qualified for the Metropolitan Short Course Championships for the first time since 2004.
At the Cumberland Short Course Championships, the club had finalists in over 70% of the events we contested with Timothy Tunks qualifying for his first District Championships and Anthony Ventra taking home a medal in the 50m Breaststroke, making this year's meet one of the club's best team performances at the championships since they began in 2002.
Four of our swimmer's performances at District meets over the summer were recognised with selection in the 2007 Cumberland District Development Squads with Anthony and Amber scoring top 3 finishes at the NSW Development Meet.

In the Club Championships, the Open Mens Championship was the most hotly contested with 13 swimmers competing. The 12yrs Boys Age Championship was also well contested with 6 swimmers competing. 13 Championship records were broken over the season.

Brittany Johnson
	16yrs Girls 50m Freestyle	(Sue Corkin, 1982/1983)
	16yrs Girls 100m Freestyle	(Angela McQueen, 2001/2002)
	16yrs Girls 200m Freestyle	(Angela McQueen, 2001/2002)
	16yrs Girls 400m Freestyle	(Sue Corkin, 1982/1983)
	16yrs Girls 50m Backstroke	(Merran Lee, 1974/1975)
	16yrs Girls 50m Breaststroke	(Meaghan Legge, 2001/2002)
	16yrs Girls 100m Breaststroke	(Carolyn Exley, 1973/1974)
	16yrs Girls 50m Butterfly	(Sue Corkin, 1982/1983)
	16yrs Girls 100m Butterfly	(Sue Corkin, 1982/1983)
Mitchell Emery
	16yrs Boys 400m Freestyle	(Todd Jenkin, 2004/2005)
	Open Mens 1500m Freestyle	(Mitchell Emery, 2005/2006)
Anthony Ventra
	13yrs Boys 50m Breaststroke	(Todd Jenkin, 2001/2002)
Ian Wilson
	Veterans Mens 50m Backstroke	(Stephen McFarlane, 2000/2001)

2006/2007 also saw the running of our annual swimming meet, the Merrylands SwimFest, at Merrylands for the fifth time. The weather was outstanding with the meet held in excellent conditions and running very smoothly. The meet again featured the use of AOE & SAT timing equipment and this year had a record number of entries. 39 of our swimmers competed at the meet, winning 31 medals and also narrowly winning the club pointscore, just 12 points ahead of Wentworthville.

Our Winter Competition was held for the fourth time and despite low numbers those attending had a good time. Anthony Ventra won the male competition and Belinda Sloane the female competition.

Finally, towards the end of the season it was announced that Swimming NSW would be changing the District Boundaries of the Metropolitan Districts, merging the existing 8 districts into 4 new areas. As a result, the Cumberland District will cease to exist as of 31st March 2008.

See Also

2006/2007 Rankings

2006/2007 Presentation Evening

NSW Metropolitan Championships - Team

NSW Metropolitan Championships - Results

Cumberland Open & Age Championships - Team

Cumberland Open & Age Championships - Results

NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships - Team

NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships - Results

NSW State Age Short Course Championships - Team

NSW State Age Short Course Championships - Results

Cumberland Open & Age Short Course Championships - Team

Cumberland Open & Age Short Course Championships - Results