Our swimmers celebrated the 2020/21 season at our annual Presentation Night, held at Club Merrylands on Saturday night.
This was our first face to face presentation night in 2 years, after running a virtual presentation last year.
Our President and MC for the evening, Graham Edwards, kicked off the night with a summary of the wonderful performances by our swimmers and volunteers over the last 12 months.
The Graded Pointscore was presented, with a lot of friendly rivalry between family members and squad groups evident! Congratulations to Brendan Kirkpatrick and Alison Johnston for taking out the Senior Pointscore, and to Unish Shrestha and Vanessa Ozols for winning the Junior Pointscore Championships. Vanessa also had the highest pointscore overall, with 299 point earned during the season.
The hotly contested Relay Pointscore was presented to team Slanigiro consisting of Brendan Kirkpatrick, Elie Menhem, Matthew Vicic, Michael Vicic, Sophia Vicic and Breeanah Khoury.
Another hotly contested award - the Senior Handicap - was presented to Glenda Wood. Glenda's experience and consistency in this event brought her over the line, with an overall win of one point.
The Learn to Swim Volunteer of the Year Award was presented to Kylee Murray. Kylee brings enthusiasm to her teaching and also covered many classes for the other teachers throughout the season.
The Coaching Awards and prized beanies were awarded to Shreya Shrestha, Darla Assi, Daniel Vicic and Pavla Hannan. These swimmers have demonstrated a consistent effort and positive attitude to training throughout the season.
The Age and Open Pointscore was awarded to swimmers based on championship results, with some very competitive age groups and close results. Congratulations to all our Age and Open Champions.
The Jack Smart Encouragement Award is in memory of Life Member, Jack Smart. This was awarded to William Johnston for his progression from 15m races to 50m events.
The Jim Pye "Minties" Development Award is in memory of Life Member, Jim Pye. This award is presented to a Junior Swimmer who has swum consistently over the season, steadily improving and representing the club at various swimming meets. Daniel Vicic was the recipient of this award.
Representative Awards and club shirts were presented to Alison Johnston, Matthew Vicic, Summer Shrestha, Vanessa Ozols, Unish Shrestha, Joab Hada and Joseph Assi for their representation of the club at Swimming NSW Events. This was the first time Unish, Joab and Joseph had received these awards.
The Lions Award was presented to Peter Johnston for his services to the club over the past season.
The Champion of Champions Award is based on performance in Graded Races, Championships, and representative swims for the club. This award ended in a tie, with Brendan Kirkpatrick and Matthew Vicic being on equal points. Brendan had achieved the bulk of his points from his performances at Club Championships while Matthew had earned his from setting new club records and his representative swims at Area, Metropolitan and State Championships.
Congratulations to all our swimmers on their awards. Thank you to the parents, volunteers and coaches who do so much work to help our swimmers achieve their results.
Thank you to Club Merrylands for their ongoing support and sponsorship of our club and for hosting our presentation night.