Enniskillen Lakelander swimmers were mixing it with some of the very best swimmers in the United Kingdom as the Bangor Aurora Aquatic & Leisure Complex played host to the 2017 Swim Ulster International/Dave McCullagh Memorial Meet.

The meet is named for the Irish Amateur Swimming Association’s first director, Dave McCullagh, who lost a battle with cancer in 2002.

There were many notable names in swimming at the event at the meet serves as a qualifying competition for the European Junior Championships, World Championships, European Youth Olympic Festival, World University Games, European Championships, and World Junior Championships. British Olympian Duncan Scott, Paralympian Bethany Firth and many other young hopeful swimmers were set to break records over the weekend.

Over the weekend Larne Swimmer, Danielle Hill, became the fastest Irish female swimmer ever after smashing the 50m Freestyle Irish Record.

Across the weekend there were four Irish senior and three Irish junior records.

The Enniskillen Lakelanders, supported by Western Cars, had four swimmers who qualified and participated in this year’s meet – they travelled along with the Lakelanders’ new Head Coach, Canadian Rob Eynon.

11-year-old Ellie McCartney had achieved the qualifying time for the 200m breaststroke when the young swimmer won the Irish 12 and Under title at the National Aquatic Centre in July.

This ‘Open’ Meet saw Ellie competing against all ages over the four lengths of the 50m pool. The July entry time saw her at 18th seed overall and a strong swim in the morning heat meant qualified for a B Final in fifth place (15th overall).

During the evening’s B final, the Fermanagh swimmer, the youngest in the competition, was up against girls much older but she did not let it deter her.

A final time of 2:51.21 saw Ellie smash three seconds off her previous personal best to finish third in the B Final leaving her the 11th fastest 200m breaststroke swimmer in Ireland when you remove the swimmers from outside Ireland. This was another mature performance by Ellie and she hopes to continue to improve as the season progresses.

Taking part for the second consecutive year at this prestigious competition, 15-year-old Sorcha Lavelle qualified to compete in four events but chose to compete in only three of these due to a prior commitment on the Friday evening at a Sports Awards.

She swam the 200m breaststroke on the Saturday and the 100m butterfly and 200m Individual Medley on the Sunday under the guidance of new head coach Rob Enyon, in which she tried out new techniques.

Jack Maravelakis swam on both Friday and Saturday competing in 100m and 200m embracing the opportunity to see some of the top swimmers in action including Olympians.

Jack rose to the occasion, with a new two second personal best in the 200m breaststroke with a time of 2:47.42 moving significantly up the rankings. Jack felt he had plenty left in the tank after the race and is looking forward to shaving a few more seconds off his time in upcoming gala’s.

Lewis McCartney, age 14, has had a fantastic season of improvements so far. Rob Eynon has been working with Lewis and the rest of Lakelanders in terms of stroke efficiency. This change has resulted in a few changes to his strokes and Lewis was happy with his technical improvement in the 200m breaststroke at the Meet since making the changes .

Coach, Rob Eynon, was very pleased with the performance of each of the swimmers and looks forward to developing the plan for these swimmers and many others.