The Swim Ulster Short Course Championship took place in Lisburn from the 13th-15th November. The Open competition saw the best in Ulster across all ages compete for the title of Ulster Champion.

It was a case of girl domination for the Lakelanders as only the girls made the qualifying standards to enter. The 5 strong team of Natasha Love, Sorcha Lavelle, Rachel Evans, Caitlin Love and Ellie McCartney competed in a range of events over the 3 days.

Natasha, sixteen, opened the Lakelanders account in the 200m Backstroke with a new personal best narrowly missing the final. She followed this up with a PB in the 100m IM. Day 2 of the competition saw Natasha make the final of the 100m Backstroke but was unable to challenge for the medals. Day 3 saw Natasha improve her 13th place ranking in the 50m Backstroke to make the final finishing in 6th place in another new PB.

Not to be outdone younger sister Caitlin, thirteen, also produced new PBs in the 200m Backcrawl & 100m Butterfly and in her best performance on Saturday made the final of the 200m Butterfly in a new best time.

Sorcha Lavelle, fourteen, competed in 6 events over the 3 day meet, 100m and 200m Breaststroke as well as the 100m, 200m and 400m Individual Medley and 400m Freestyle achieving PBs and qualifying times for the Ulster Age Group Championships and next summers Irish Division 1 Championships. Her best finishes were to come in the 400m Freestyle where she claimed a 3rd place position in the Junior age group and a 9th place finish in the open category for the 400m IM. A great start to the swimming season for Sorcha.

Rachel Evans had a brilliant 3 days competing in 6 events with the highlight being a huge 24 second PB in the 400m Freestyle. With a Division One time for 2016 already secured in the 100m Breaststroke she was able to look at different events and came close to breaking 30 seconds for 50m Freestyle. Rachel also matched her previous PB of 10:06 in the 100m Freestyle.

Ellie McCartney was the youngest of all the swimmers attending the meet at the Lagan Valley LeisurePlex. Although the 10 years old is in the middle of her transfer tests she took the opportunity to gain some valuable experience swimming against Commonwealth swimmers and Olympic hopefuls. Ellie swam to a new short course PB of 3:05.86 in the 200m Breaststroke ahead of many swimmers 4 years older than her.

Sorcha Lavelle, Rachel Evans, Caitlin Love and Ellie McCartney came together to swim in the 400m Medley Relay and finished with a 14 second improvement from their last outing at the Irish Championships.

Enniskillen Lakelanders Head Coach, Justin Langford, was poolside for the entire event and was pleased with the swimmers performances. Justin said “These girls have made good improvements over the last few months and have an opportunity to better these times in December at the Swim Ulster Winter Meet at the same venue.”