Albany Swim Club performs strongly in home pool at Short Course Carnival against competitors from around WA

The Albany Swim Club hosted the annual Albany Short Course Carnival at the Albany Leisure and Aquatic Centre at the weekend, with more than 150 competitors from across WA taking part. The two-day meet attracted 192 swimmers who hit the water in 1328 individual swims while a strong contingent of 30 Albany competitors took part in 199 individual events. The region’s best talent faced off against competitors from several different swim clubs which included Australind, Bunbury, Esperance, Fremantle, Kalgoorlie and Scarborough. Ashton Henrickson and Megan Pascoe were among the stand-outs for the ASC, each winning finals in their age divisions. Henrickson powered to victory in the boys 13-14 100m backstroke final with an impressive time of 1min.10:01sec., improving on his previous best of 1:13.67. The talented Albany swimmer went on to better his time again in the open men’s 100m backstroke event to finish third in a time of 1:09.23 while also swimming in the boys 13-14 100m freestyle final in 59:81 to claim second place. Pascoe swam superbly in the girls 15-16 100m breaststroke final and stopped the clock in 1:24.24 to claim top spot, shaving more than three seconds off her personal best. She also won the open women’s 100m breaststroke final in a time of 1:23.82, also bettering her personal best. Albany had four swimmers listed as Top 10 Achievers of the Meet — Lillian Molenda, 12, Summer Lawson, 13, Sophia Riddell, 12, and Tariq Malpass, 15, who all made considerable improvements on their previous best times across multiple events. Molenda notched PB times in nine of her 12 individual events, taking 13.33 seconds off her best time in the girls 9-and-over 200m breaststroke. Malpass had a brilliant day with PBs times in all 11 of his individual events, shaving 10.32 seconds off his 100m butterfly time in the boys 15-16 age group. Lawson also rose to the occasion by swimming the 200m freestyle well under three minutes, coming in with a time of 2:50.70, smashing 24.98secs off his previous best mark. Riddell smashed her personal best times in 10 of her 11 swims, surging home in under three minutes (2:56.36) in the girls 9-and-over 200m freestyle, carving nearly 40secs off her PB. Mt Barker’s Hannah Osborne made the top 10 achievers list which included Ella O’Brien (Kalgoorlie), Daniel Angelevski (Riverside), Travis Campbell (Broome), Jacob Delfs (Bunbury) and Kael O’Byrne (Australind). Albany Swim Club coach Nola Osborne said it was fantastic to see Albany compete with some of WA’s best. “Albany went really well, everyone swam well and we had some really good results,” she said. “We had four of the top 10 achievers which was the most out of any club so that was great. “Ashton went under a minute for his 100m freestyle which was the first time he’s ever done that and Megan shaved quite a lot off her 100m breaststroke to get a State time which she’s been chasing, so that was good to achieve that. “There were quite a few of our swimmers who actually swum new State times which is a massive achievement for them.”