SWIM ULSTER’S Summer Qualifying Gala took place over the weekend of May 20-22 at the Bangor Aurora Aquatic Complex.
Enniskillen Lakelanders were represented by a strong squad of 14 swimmers aged 10 to 14.
Kealan McShea continued his great form winning five medals, rewarding his dedication in training. 
On his first day he competed in the 200m Backstroke winning a silver medal, following this up with a new PB of 4.73 secs in the 100m Freestyle. 
His final event on Saturday was the 50m Backstroke were he swam to a bronze medal. Sunday brought further success with two bronze medals in the 50m fly and 50m Free. Gold was to come in his favourite event the 100m Backstroke.
Ellie McCartney attending one day of the championships entered four events and came away with four medals and personal bests in each event. Ellie won her favourite event, the 100m Breaststroke, by more than three seconds with a time of 1:26.43 but was determined to try different events before the Irish Age Groups. 
Ellie had a go at the 100m butterfly for the first time in more than a year and bettered her time by three seconds to lift the gold. She also competed in the 50m and 200m Freestyle winning bronze medals in both events.
Sorcha Lavelle competed in three events in the morning session of Day Two, the 100m Butterfly, 100m Breaststroke and 50m Butterfly. She medalled in each event winning two silver and a bronze. Sorcha is now preparing for the Leinster Division 1 Championships in June.
Jack Maravelakis had a great gala also competing in three events winning two silver and a bronze medal along with 2 PB’s. Jack achieved 1.17.05 LC in the 100m Breaststroke setting himself up nicely for the Upcoming National Championships
Ben Lynch had a successful weekend of swimming achieving six new PB’s, winning gold in the 200m Freestyle, silver in the 400m Freestyle and bronze in the 100m Butterfly, also achieving his fourth division one qualifying time.
Oisin McManus competed in the 1500m Freestyle on the opening evening of the Gala and turned in a magnificent performance to record a time of 19.34.21 minutes, enough for a bronze medal but more importantly a huge 12.25 seconds faster than his previous time set just over a month ago at the Ulster Age Groups Gala in April.
Saturday morning saw Oisin line up for the 200m Individual Medley and here again he recorded his second PB taking 4.12seconds of his previous time but just missing out on a medal with fourth place overall. In the 200m Backstroke, Oisin took his second bronze of the tournament finishing just behind his friend and teammate Kealan McShea with a time of 2:41.94 mins
The 100m Freestyle is not an event that Oisin normally competes in but here he recorded a time of 1:08.73mins, a PB of almost four seconds.
Oisin’s final race of the tournament was the 400m Freestyle recording a time of 5.05.10, which despite not being his best time for this event still keeps him well up there with the best in the region.
Jake Cadden attending the Saturday morning heats competed in three races, he achieved two PB’s in both the 200IM and the 100m Freestyle and won a gold medal in the 50m Backstroke.
Caitlin Love’s aim for the weekend was to improve her rankings for Irish Age Groups. In the 100m Butterfly Caitlin secured a one second PB to finish third taking home a bronze medal. She also achieved a new PB in the 200m Freestyle finishing in fifth place.
Following a change in the age group for the season finale Lewis McCartney has been concentrating this season on obtaining qualifying times for the Division 2 championship. Having five times already Lewis added the 200m Breaststroke to his list with a 6.4 second PB finishing in the top five. He also choose to swim the gruelling 1500m freestyle event. Over 30 lengths of the 50m pool Lewis smashed 24 seconds of his best time to finish fourth just missing out on the medals. The 200m IM was entered for the fun and Lewis took more than eight seconds off his time to leave him just outside a seventh IAG time and a top eight finish. Lewis finished that day with a fantastic 50m Breaststroke to win the bronze medal in a time of 40.82 seconds.
This was Connor McKenzie’s first time to swim the 1500m freestyle, Connor performed very well completing the swim in 20.32.25 and was delighted to achieve another division two time.
Connor completed the 200m freestyle in 2.24.23 getting a new PB and another division two time. Connor also performed well in 50m butterfly coming home with silver.
Niamh O’Kane targeted a minimum of two further IAG qualifying times in Bangor at Meet 3 of Swim Ulster’s Qualifying galas, and was not disappointed by what she achieved. She competed in six events across the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, recorded six PB’s and in the process picked up the two qualifying times she targeted for the IAG’s during the summer. Her most notable achievements over the weekend were going under 32 seconds for the 50 Free and under 1 minute 10 seconds for the 100 Free for the first time, the latter of which was a 2.07 second PB. Not content with those achievements Niamh went on to wipe 14.5 seconds off both her 400 Free and 800 Free times, the former of which was a further Qualifying Time for the summer championships.
Niamh put her success primarily down to applying some last minute swim tactics she picked up on the day, and the extra training hours she is putting in at the Forum. Niamh is looking to achieve one more Qualifying Time in the 200 free at the Bangor open before making the journey south for the summer Irish Age Groups.
Caitlin Martin competed in four events at this meet in preparation for the IAG Division two in Limerick in June she had top ten finishes in the 100m and 200m Backstroke, she followed this up with a 2.5 second PB in her 200m IM and to finish a solid swim in her 100m Freestyle.
Rachel Evans swam Personal Bests in the 100m Butterfly and 200m Breaststroke.
She excelled herself in the 50m Freestyle with a time of 30.5 seconds.
Rachel now looks forward to another Bangor long course gala in June and the Irish Division One Championships in July.
The swimmers will be putting all into their training programme over the next few weeks before their final Competitions at the end of June for Division Two in Limerick and the middle of July for Division One in Dublin.