The Enniskillen Lakelanders AquaSprint team kicked off their season with an away win at Armagh on Saturday. 
The Forest Feast AquaSprints is Swim Ulster’s Junior Swimming League that sees more than 1,500 young swimmers from 25 clubs across Northern Ireland compete in a series of league fixtures in four divisions, culminating in the league finals in June 2017. 
Enniskillen compete in Division D and got promotion bid off to a great start at the Orchard Leisure Centre. With two divisional swimmers as captains, Ellie McCartney and Jake Cadden, the 39-person squad was excited to get started and many new swimmers were eager to take part.
The gala is divided into four age groups with the youngest, Group A, being born on or before 2008 down to the oldest, Group D – those born in 2005. Kate McDade and Eloise Boyd, who both swam up last year, were joined by newbie Cora McConnell. Oliver Mooney and Jamie Lannon represented the boys – both having swam up last year. As the season progresses the club are looking forward to seeing more 2008 swimmers join this group when they improve.
All AquaSprints start with the medley relay where each club provides a team of four in each age group. Each swimmer swims a different stroke. The visiting team won Group A with the home team winning Group B. 
Enniskillen were able to swim to wins in both Group C and D leaving them 24-16 ahead.
The first individual event is the backcrawl. 
Each team provides three swimmers and two of these swimmers count towards points. Abigail Boyd, Isobel Lannon, Patrick Williams and Ellie McCartney all finished in first place in their groups. Second place points were scored by Kate McDade, Jamie Lannon, Nial Bruce, Anna McDade and Jake Cadden. A number of these swimmers swam PBs along with Josie Roma, Leona Forster, Oisin Cox, Callum O’Hare and Erin Forster. Enniskillen had stretched their lead to 12 points.
The Lakelanders dominated the breaststroke with six wins out of eight by Eloise Boyd, Oliver Mooney, Abigail Boyd, Annabel Morrison, Patrick Williams and Ellie McCartney. Kate McDade, Jamie Lannon, Anna Cairns and Callum O’Hare helped make it a Fermanagh 1-2 with second-place finishes along with Nial Bruce and Jake Cadden. There were great PBs by Cora McConnell, Cora Cassidy, Conan McCaffrey and Brendan Munar. The gap was now 115-85 to Enniskillen.
The hardest stroke is always butterfly but the visiting team won five out of eight groups; Kate McDade, Oliver Mooney, Abigail Boyd, Patrick Williams and Ellie McCartney all reached the top of the podium. Eloise Boyd, Nial Bruce, Annabel Morrison and Jake Cadden all helped the score extend to 157-123. PBs came from Maria Toal, Leah Irwin, Eve Barrett, Anna Toal and Matthew Dolan.
The final individual event was the freestyle; Jamie Lannon smashed his PB to win along with Abigail Boyd, Leah Irwin, Patrick Williams and Ellie McCartney. Nial Bruce and Jake Cadden were able to add the points for second places. Other PBs came from Frank Buchannon, Patrick Magee, Rory Keogh and Joel McGriskin. With the freestyle relays still to come the Enniskillen Lakelanders remained well ahead.
The freestyle relays gave the clubs an opportunity to give most of the swimmers an additional competitive swim. The additional swimmers were timed for future reference and they all swam their hearts out. The honours were shared with Armagh winning Group A and Group B and Enniskillen winning Groups C and D. The final score was Armagh 183 Enniskillen 217.
Special mention must go to Abigail Boyd, Patrick Williams and Ellie McCartney who remained unbeaten throughout the event. Ellie McCartney was also the fastest swimmer on the night. It was heartwarming to see all the swimmers enjoying the event, the pinnacle being the round of applause that Cora McConnell received following a great swim in the final leg of her relay.  she came out of the pool beaming! That’s what it’s all about. Thanks also to club coaches have developed these swimmers – especially Fiona Martin, Clare Morris and Chelsey Wilson. who have been co-ordinating an interim coaching solution over the last week and will continue to do so until at least Christmas.These galas could not take place without parent volunteers helping timekeeping & officiating. Thanks also to Natasha Love who came along and looked after the warm-up for Enniskillen and the parents who helped. Thanks to those parents who helped – especially those who were doing it for the first time. As usual the hospitality from the Armagh club was superb.There is a great opportunity for these swimmers to improve further at the Lakelanders Swim Meet on November 13 at the Lakeland Forum.