Lewis McCartney picked up two bronze medals while the other members of the Lakelanders squad produced a strong of personal bests at the Irish Age Groups Division Two Championships in Limerick last weekend.
The Irish Age Groups Division 2 Championships is the starting step in the Swim Ireland National Competition Pathway and for many others it is the culmination of a year’s hard training. 
Five Enniskillen Lakelanders attained the times required to compete in the 2016 Championships being held in the University of Limerick with 77 teams and 564 athletes participating. The event is broken into age groups over two years depending on the year of birth.
Lewis McCartney (2002) was one of the younger swimmers in the 01-02 group and qualified for five events. He competed on each day of the event beginning with the 1500m Freestyle. This is the longest event at the Championships and Lewis was determined to make a good start to the weekend. Over the 60 lengths of the 25m pool the 13 year old smashed almost 50 seconds, off his best ever time. He finished in third place in a time of 18 minutes and 24 seconds to win a bronze medal. With his confidence in swimming the longer distances, Lewis was seeded to swim in the last heat of the 400m Freestyle. Knowing that the heat declared medal winners would come from this group he knew that to get a second medal he needed finish in the top three. The Lakelander swam the race of his life and missed out on a first place by just over one second but was very happy with another bronze medal in a time of 4:44 – a 15 second personal best. Lewis also qualified for the finals of the 200m Freestyle and 100m Breaststroke finishing fifth and eighth respectively in his age groups with more PBs. On the final day Lewis was suffering from an ear infection but still managed PBs in the 200m Breaststroke and the 100m Freestyle. With two bronze medals, two additional finals, two Division One times and seven personal bests in events, Lewis is due a well-earned rest before targeting the Irish Championships next year.
Niamh O’Kane arrived at the University Limerick Sports Arena in top form and full of confidence to compete and excel at the Irish Divisionals. In her first swim, the 100m Fly, she easily made the finals via the Saturday morning prelims by bettering her PB by 3.84 seconds to secure a top five place in a time of 1:18.36 seconds amongst a strong field of 12 other Butterflyers in her age group, many of whom were a year older. In the afternoon finals, she further bettered her new PB by another 1.29 seconds, completing the 100m swim in 1:17.07. On the day, she finished fifth fastest in the 14 and under age group and in the silver medal position for the 13 year olds. PB’s continued to be smashed in Limerick by Niamh in the 400m free on Sunday morning as she took 2.21 seconds off her previous personal best. The 100m Free was Niamh’s final race at the Divisionals, and despite swimming against a powerful field, she maintained her previous PB to complete the course in a SC season best of 1:09. Niamh is looking forward to the 2016/2017 season where she is in no doubt that after her improvement in all four strokes during 2016, she will be returning to Dublin and the Irish Division 1 championships in the summer of 2017.
Caitlin Martin, 14, qualified for three events in Limerick, 100m and 200m Backcrawl and 200m Individual Medley. Caitlin was one of the youngest in her age group, competing against 18 year olds. She has struggled to get back to full form after an operation earlier this year, so she was happy to achieve her pre operation times in 100m and 200m Backcrawl and delighted to get a personal best in 200m Individual Medley. Caitlin is looking forward to getting back into training in the new season in September.
Jake Cadden (10) was excited to be attending his first National competition. Arriving down Thursday evening gave him a chance to check out the University pool before his first race the next day. On Friday morning Jake swam the 100m backstroke and beat his previous time by 4.65 seconds to not only place 13th overall in his age group of 11 years and younger but he also gained a Division 2 time for next year’s age group of 12/13 yr olds. On Saturday morning although not feeling 100 percent, Jake swam the 200m backstroke and again smashed his previous time by 7.75 seconds to come 11th overall. Jake now looks forward to improving on his times and returning to Limerick next year.
13 year old Connor McKenzie had spent the previous week on a school trip in France and really enjoyed the experience at UL Sport. Connor finished 19th in the 400m Freestyle and also competed well in the 100m Freestyle. He is looking forward to competing at this level in 2016-17.
These swimmers could not achieve their goals without the help and support of their coaches and families. The Enniskillen Lakelanders would like to thank all of these people including the Fionna Martin, for all her coaching help over the weekend, and Terry McCartney, for acting as Team Manager and dealing with the paperwork during the event. 
Cavanagh Kelly once again provided the kit for the swimmers over the weekend and the club is very thankful to them.
 In two weeks time the club has 10 swimmers qualified for the Irish Age Groups and Summer Open in the National Aquatic Centre, Dublin. 
Follow the progress on facebook/EnniskillenLakelanders