It was a brilliant weekend for the Lakelanders at the Ulster Age Group championships at the Bangor Aurora with a gold medal for Kealan McShea and three golds for flyer Ellie McCartney as well as a superb and rare gold medal for the boys’ 4x50m freestyle relay team.

Elsewehere, there were medal winning performances from Caitlin Love and Ben Lynch while the boys’ relay picked up another bronze to round off a great weekend for the club at these most competitive of swimming championships.

Indeed, the Lakelanders took a squad of 12 with almost 2,000 swimmers competing over the three days and to leave with a medal haul of eight gold medals, three silver medals and five bronze medals (including relay medals) along with numerous PBs and Irish Qualifying times was some achievement.

Ellie McCartney, who only turned 12 last week, entered six events over the weekend qualifying for finals in each one. Competing in the 12 year old section Ellie came home with three Ulster titles in 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke and 200m Individual Medley.

While Ellie has won the breaststroke titles in the previous years, the IM title was a great addition. An exciting race saw the young Lakelander in fifth position after the butterfly and backcrawl while she moved into first place in the breaststroke length and held this position in the freestyle to win the gold medal in a time of 2:35.79 – a new PB by 7.5 seconds.

On the Friday Night Ellie held off the challenge of the other swimmers to win the 100m Breaststroke final, taking more than two seconds off her PB, in a time of 1:19.54. On Sunday evening Ellie won the 200m breaststroke for the third year running with a time of 2:48.78. Ellie also made the Final in some events she would not normally compete in – 100m & 200m Freestyle and 100m backcrawl improving her seeding each time finishing fifth, fifth and eighth respectively with Long Course PBs in each one.

Kealan Mc Shea entered five events over the weekend making four finals and first reserve for the fifth, also achieving two more IAG Division One times in the 100m freestyle and 200 IM.

More importantly his commitment to training showed as he achieved a personal best time in all events, notably a massive four second PB in the 100m freestyle moving him from 26th seed to take sixth place in the final.

He then narrowly missed a bronze medal by 0.01 sec in the 200m backstroke but on day three, his determination and strength shone through in his final individual race where he swam a fantastic race to come from fifth seed to take gold and become Ulster Champion in the 100m backstroke.

Ben Lynch competed in eight events over the three days. On the opening day of the gala he had a three second PB in the 200m Freestyle to finish fifth and he also finished sixth in the 400m IM. Saturday saw Ben compete in the 100m Freestyle, 100m Butterfly and 1,500m freestyle achieving new PBs in all events and winning silver in the 1,500m Freestyle. On the final day Ben had three more great PBs in the 400m Freestyle, 100m backcrawl and 200m butterfly, winning silver in the 400m freestyle and bronze in the 200m butterfly.

Three of the senior girls Caitlin Love, Sorcha Lavelle and Rachel Evans were competing in the highly competitive 15/16 age group facing stiff competition from the older girls which included Irish Junior record holders. All three girls made it into the 200m Breaststroke final on the final day which was great excitement for the club.

15 year old Caitlin’s weekend produced a mixed bag of results, day one saw Caitlin finish eighth in the 800m freestyle. It was day two before Caitlin found her form, swimming a strong 200m butterfly to make the final.

In the final Caitlin had a great swim lying fourth with 50 metres to go; she had a great final length to achieve a new PB and breaking the 2 minute 40 mark to take home a silver medal.

Day three saw Caitlin make the final of the 100m Butterfly and 200m Breaststroke but was unable to add to her medal tally.

Sorcha Lavelle competed in four events over the weekend making finals in all, the 100m breaststroke, finishing in fourth position, 200m breaststroke in fifth place and eighth and ninth place finishes in the 100m butterfly and 200m Individual Medley respectively.

Rachel Evans had her best performance of the year qualifying for the final of the 200m breaststroke with a PB and Irish Division 1 Time of 3.02. She also PB’d in the 100m freestyle event paving the way for more Division One times to hopefully follow before the Championships.

The three girls along with Ellie McCartney competed in two very tight U16 relays just missing out on medalling by 0.5 second in the 200m Medley and a fifth place finish in the 200m freestyle relay.

Oisin Mc Manus was competing in his first major gala since before Christmas 2016, his first event was the 200m freestyle were Oisin swam a respectable 2:17.32 which whilst not his best time, did get him back into the feeling of competing at a major regional level.

In the 400m IM he logged a super time of 5:22.54, a 7.46s personal best and an overall fourth place giving him a huge confidence boost. In the 100m breaststroke Oisin swam a respectable 1:20.47, giving him his first final qualification, where he later again improved slightly on this time ending with a 1.40s PB.

On day two of the gala, Oisin started the day with the 100m freestyle where he posted a respectable PB time of 1:03.02 minutes. Later in the same session Oisin competed in the 100m butterfly where he again improved on his previous best by 2.95s with a time of 1.08.83. This was enough to make the final in the evening where he maintained his overall eighth position.

On the final day, Oisin was in action in the 200m Individual Medley where he achieved third place in the heats and improved on his time in the later final justifying his Irish Division One qualification.

Later in the same session Oisin finished his individual races with the 400m freestyle in which he posted a fantastic 2.51s PB and an Irish Division One qualification time of 4:46.56.

14-year-old Lewis McCartney has been working on a longer more efficient stroke over recent weeks and entered six events achieving finals in four races; 200m freestyle, 100m and 200m breaststroke and 200m IM. Long Course PBs were recorded in the latter three of 2.5 seconds, two seconds and one second respectively as well as a 100m freestyle Long Course PB of 1.02.18.

Jack Maravelakis performed well, despite a recurring knee injury making the finals in all his events, finishing fifth in Ulster in both 100m and 200m Breaststroke finals.

Connor McKenzie had an amazing weekend. Connor competed in 100m free, 200m free and 100m fly. Connor had great PBs in all, reached two finals but best of all achieved his goal of getting 1.00.70 in 100m free and a Division One time.

Jake Cadden (11) the youngest member of the senior squad was making his first appearance at an UAG event. He was delighted to qualify for three finals out of four events. Jake had a great PB in both the 100m freestyle and 200m IM. His highlight was placing 4th in Ulster in the 100m backstroke.

Niamh O’Kane competed in the 100m butterfly finishing in ninth position after putting in a good, strong swim.

Enniskillen Lakelanders have not previously excelled in the regional or national relay events but this year’s UAGY finals was the moment all that changed when teammates Connor McKenzie, Kealan Mc Shea, Lewis Mc Cartney and Oisin McManus took the race 4x50m freestyle race by storm, romping home in a time of 1:52.29 seconds to take the gold medal amid scenes of ecstatic jubilation poolside. The four boys also claimed a bronze medal in the 4x50m Medley Relay.