St Mary's Swimmers at Schools' Gala

St Mary's Swimmers at Schools' Gala

On Saturday 15th October, 8 young St Mary's pupils set off to the Aurora complex, Bangor, to represent the school at the Swim Ulster Schools Gala. Schools from all of Ulster are represented at this gala and the competition is tough. Swimmers are only allowed to enter 2 individual events but we also had enough swimmers to make a relay team for both the 200m freestyle relay and the 200m medley relay.

The swimmers that represented the school were:

Samantha Burns-Atkin, P4,  entered into 50m Backstroke & 50m Breaststroke

Jan Boersma, P4, entered into 50m Freestyle & 50m Breaststroke

Cathal Hill, P4, entered into 50m Freestyle & 50m Breaststroke

Mychaela McEvoy, P5, entered into 50m Backstroke & 50m Freestyle

Lauren Burns-Atkin, P5, entered into 50m Breaststroke & 50m Butterfly

Madison Cairns, P6, 50m Freestyle & 50m Breaststroke

Kate Smith, P6, 50m Freestyle & 50m Breaststroke

Alana Burns-Atkin, P7, entered into 50m Backstroke & 100m individual medley.

It was the first time that some of these swimmers had been to a gala like this, the situation can be daunting but our swimmers seemed to enjoy the atmosphere and being there together.

First up in the morning, was the 50m freestyle events. The girls 7-9 group was up first, Mychaela swam well and clocked a time of 48.01 seconds, placing her 12th, just missing the final by 0.25 of a second. Next was the boys 7-9 group both Jan and Cathal swam strongly, Cathal did it in 45.28 placing him 12th and missing the Dublin qualifying time by 0.28 of a second. Jan clocked 1:07.51, placing him 29th, which was a good swim from one of our less experienced swimmers. Next was the turn of Kate and Madison in the 10 year old category. Kate clocked 46.29, placing her 32nd, and Madison clocked 48.45, placing her 37th. Kate recording a PB in a new event for her and Madison knocked over 7 seconds off her PB.

Next up we had the 50m breaststroke events. First up was the girls 7-9, Lauren finished in 55.01, finishing 2nd and knocking nearly 2 seconds off her PB, it put her in the final for later on and also gave her a qualifying time for Dublin. Samantha, again one of our less experienced swimmers, did well and finished in 1:13.67, placing her 19th. Jan and Cathal were up again in the boys 7-9, Jan finished it in 1:30.48, placing him 22nd, Cathal finished it in 1:00.28, placing him 6th, putting him in the final and also a qualifying time for Dublin. Madison and Kate were again next up in the 10 year old girls. Madison Finished in 23rd in 1:00.29, just missing the Dublin qualifying time by 0.29 of a second. Kate finished in 27th in 1:02.68, again a PB in a new event for her.

Next was the girls 7-9 50m backstroke, with Samantha and Mychaela. Samantha finished in 1:14.44, placing her 33rd. Mychaela swam strong in what was clearly one of her favourite events. She finished in 55.27, placing her 8th, putting her in the final and achieving the qualifying time for Dublin.

We then had the final individual heat, the girls 7-9 50m butterfly. This is not one of Lauren's favourite events but she did herself proud. She finished in 54.47, placing her 3rd, putting her into the final and again another qualifying time for Dublin.

So this brought us to the finals. First up Lauren in the 50m breaststroke, she swam strongly and was leading from the start, she finished 1st, at least a metre clear of 2nd place. However, the judges were being strict in the finals and Lauren was disqualified for an infringement at the turn. Next we had Cathal in the 50m breaststroke, he swam really well and improved his time, finishing in 58.64, placing him 4th in the final. Mychaela was then up in the 50m backstroke, again another strong swim but maybe nerves got to her as she was adjudged to have made a false start and was disqualified. Finally Lauren was up again in the butterfly, again another strong swim, finishing third but the judges again noticed an infringement at the turn and she was disqualified for a second time. It was tough to take for these young swimmers who did ever so well.

We then went into the relays, the team was made up of Madison, Kate, Mychaela and Lauren. First was the girls 10 and under 200m medley relay. We had a strong start but we were swimming against teams that had older stronger swimmers. We finished in 3:40.94 placing us 7th. Next we had the 200m freestyle relay, again the same girls were in the team. We had another strong swim but we were adjudged to have made an infringement and were disqualified. Another hard lesson to take for such young swimmers.

We then went on to the afternoon session where Alana was our only representative. Swimming in the 50m backstroke heat she finished in 43.76, placing her 7th and achieving a Dublin qualifying time. Then she was in the 100 individual medley, finishing in 1:38.37, also placing her 7th and again achieving the Dublin qualifying time. It was a strong field in both finals and the competition was tough. Alana swam the best she could but couldn't improve on her times and finish 7th again in both.

It was a day of highs and lows. The swimmers seemed to enjoy the atmosphere and competing but there were hard lessons to be learnt with the disqualifications. Overall we had 8 swimmers achieve a total of 14 new PBs. We had 4 swimmers in a total of 6 finals and 4 swimmers made the qualifying times for Dublin. I think this is an incredible achievement for such a small team of young swimmers.

Finally, I'd like to thank all the parents and relatives, of the swimmers, that were there on Saturday, the support and help you gave was very much appreciated. I especially want to thank Lisa (Kate's mum) and Lorna (Mychaela's mum) who volunteered to time keep at the gala. It can be a daunting task if you haven't done it before but I know if it wasn't for people volunteering for these duties then the galas wouldn't be able to go ahead. Thank you!

The Irish minor schools championship will be held in the NAC, Dublin on Sunday 12th February 2017. Good luck to all the swimmers.