Enniskillen Lakelanders returned from the Ulster Short Course Championships with three swimmers placed in the top ten in Ulster following another successful competition for the club
This Swim Ulster open event, held at the Aurora Complex in Bangor, is the premier event in the 25m pool calendar and features swimmers of all ages including Great Britain most decorated Paralympian Bethany Firth. 
With almost 1000 entries over three days and extremely difficult to achieve qualifying times, only seven of the Enniskillen Lakelanders qualified and attended the event.
Ellie McCartney was the youngest Lakelander at the event and swam personal bests in 50m, 100m and 200m Breaststroke and knocked 3.5 seconds off the 200m Individual Medley time. 
The eleven year old Lakelander finished 14th in Ulster in the 100m, 19th in the 50m and 27th in the 200m IM. 
On the final day Ellie qualified for the 200m Breaststroke Final with a new Short Course PB. 
In the final Ellie was up against the top female swimmers in Ulster of all ages and finished the event in eighth place. Another superb result for the local swimmer who also recorded PBs in each of the three relays she participated in.
Oisin McManus continued his 1500m Freestyle success with a PB of 18.03.99, which is 9.12 seconds faster than the time he set at the Swim Ulster Winter Qualifying Gala just over four weeks ago to finish eighth overall. Oisin looks forward to continuing his training with the Lakelanders and further success in 2017.
Lewis McCartney had achieved four of the open qualifying times for the event and produced his best swim in the 200m Breaststroke with a 5 second PB of 2:47.89. This left him with a Dave McCullagh time for the event in February. 
The 14 year old also swam to a massive 35 second PB in the 1500m Freestyle doing 60 lengths in 18 minutes and 21 seconds finishing ninth overall – achieving a fifth Irish Age Group time of the season. 
Lewis also had a PB in the 400m Breaststroke and competed well in the 400m Freestyle on the last day.
Caitlin Love, 14, swam in eight events over the three days. 
Day one saw Caitlin achieve a new 3.52 second PB in the 100m Breaststroke achieving her Division One qualifying time. 
Day two saw two new PBs in the 200m IM and 50m Breaststroke and finally on day three a whopping 10.55 second PB in the 200m Breaststroke.
Kealan McShea competed in both 100m and 200m Backcrawl events, finishing 18th and 13th respectively – a new PB in the former event. This will translate into great experience in Open competition.
Sorcha Lavelle (15) on Friday competed in the 100m breaststroke, 100m IM and 50m Fly finishing with her season’s best times and on Saturday swimming the 50m Breaststroke and the 200m IM, showing she is getting back on form and hoping to achieve more in 2017.
Rachel Evans had a solid weekend in Bangor with two excellent Personal Bests in the 100m Individual Medley and 50m Breaststroke events.
The Lakelanders also entered three of the relay events during the championships. Ellie, Caitlin, Rachel and Sorcha competed in the 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay and set a new club Junior record of 4:27.61. 
On Saturday Oisin, Ellie, Rachel and Lewis also set a new club junior record with a time of 1:57.11 in the 4 x 50m Mixed Freestyle Relay to finish fourth Junior team in Ulster. 
The final day saw the club enter a 4 x 50 Mixed Medley Relay also finish fourth Junior team in a time of 2:09.67 with Kealan, Ellie, Caitlin and Lewis all swimming PBs to set another club record.
Three of the Lakelanders Junior swimmers attended a skills clinic with the Swim Ulster Coaches during the breaks in the afternoon. 
Cora Cassidy, Isobel Lannon and Frank Buchanan all worked on starts, turns and technique over two days.