Small Albany Swim Club team shines in the pool after making long trip to Carnarvon for country pennants

Albany Swim Club made the long haul to Carnarvon to compete in the Sunsmart Country Pennants on the Labour Day long weekend, winning a host of medals at the annual event. The small but dedicated Albany team travelled the 1300km in a 15-hour bus trip to compete against 26 regional clubs from every corner of WA. The Albany contingent was made up of team captains Scott West, Megan Pascoe, Ashton Henrickson and Imogen Fethers along with Liesel Freebury, Brooke West, Summer Lawson, Tessa Steer, Seth Lawson, Jason Wenbourne and Annie Newman. From a total of 41 individual swims and 10 relays, the Albany team finished with nine gold medals, eight silver and 13 bronze. The team also recorded some personal best times and State times. ASC head coach Nola Osborne said a lot of work went into the training, preparation and logistics of getting a team to Country Pennants. “This meet is considered the highlight of the WA regional swimming calendar, bringing regional clubs from as far south as Albany, as far east as Kalgoorlie and as far north as Broome to compete against each other over two days of competition,” she said. Albany’s highlight of the weekend came from the men’s open relay team of West, 17, Henrickson, 14, Lawson, 11, and Wenbourne, 11, who finished with silver medals in the 4x50m freestyle and 4x50m medley relays. Freebury took 11.63sec. off her 50m butterfly entry time and Henrickson shaved e 23.74sec. off his 50m breaststroke entry time. West and Henrickson also finished the meet with six medals from six swims. Osborne said it was a great achievement for the club to have these swimmers perform the way they did. “It was a very hot and busy weekend so these are pretty special achievements and it just shows the athletes’ character and resilience,” she said. “These 11 athletes had a good, solid preparation for this meet, and to achieve what they did is awesome. “It’s not every day that you have swimmers achieve so much. “They are definitely worthy of the title of the Mighty 11.”