The Irish Minor Schools’ Championships took place on Saturday, March 25 at the National Aquatic Centre, (NAC) Dublin.

Six swimmers from Enniskillen Lakelanders had qualified back in October, 2022, and were full of excitement as they headed off to the NAC for the first time.

The swimmers were determined to represent the Ulster well on their debut.

Devenish College

Emma Speer (11) travelled to the NAC to represent Devenish College in the Swim Ireland Minor School Championships.

Emma had excellent days swimming in her IM; she improved her time by 2.20 seconds, placing her in the top 30.

The highlight for Emma was her 15th place in the 50m Breaststroke, with another PB in a highly-competitive field of more than 50 swimmers in the under-12 category.

Enniskillen Model PS

Martha Mc Creesh (12) had an extremely successful day at the NAC. She had qualified to swim two races – the 100m IM and 50m Backstroke.

A great start saw Martha gain a new PB and a 15th place finish in her IM. Later in the afternoon, Martha swam a tightly-contested 50m Backstroke, gaining a much sought after place in the final and a new PB.

Strategic swimming saw Martha drop a further second in the final, leaving her very proud to finish seventh in Ireland in her 50m Backstroke.

Enniskillen Royal GS

Two swimmers travelled to the NAC to represent Enniskillen Royal Grammar School (ERGS).

Jessica Millar (12) swam in her favoured stroke, Breaststroke, gaining a new PB and knocking almost four seconds off her time.

Jessica was pleased to be placed first in her heat of 50m Breaststroke and overall just outside the top 20 in the U-12 Breaststroke.

Erin Salcedo (12), also representing ERGS, competed in two events. In 100m IM she got a PB of 2.70 seconds, finishing just outside the top 20, while in 50m Freestyle, she also had a PB of 1.17 seconds, again just finishing outside the top 20, but she was very happy to find that she had secured a time for the summer nationals in June.

Holy Trinity PS

Kaira Salcedo (10) represented Holy Trinity PS Enniskillen. She was delighted to qualify for the Irish Minor Schools back in October, the only local representative in the 9-10 years category, where Kaira did her school proud.

Kaira attained a PB in her 50m Breaststroke, placing her in the top 13 overall in the U-10 category, while in the 50m Butterfly Kaira just finished outside the top 20.

Tattygar PS

Myleene Leonard also had an excellent day in Dublin, Myleene had just qualified for one event in Dublin but her training and commitment to swimming has seen Myleene improve in leaps and bounds.

Myleene was seeded at 39th position in the Backstroke but dropped an incredible 6.35 seconds and left her missing out on the final by one place.

At 11th spot, this left Myleene very proud of her day.

Schools’ Interpro

Enniskillen Lakelanders also had three representatives for the Swim Ulster Schools’ Interpro Team.

Swimmers were selected based on their performance at the Swim Ulster Senior Schools Cup & Championships which was held at Aurora Aquatic & Leisure Complex in February.

Mount Lourdes was represented by Anna McDade, whilst ERGS was represented by Ellie Dunlop, and Cora Rooney represented Colaiste Cholmchille.

The girls all swam extremely well in representing Ulster, but unfortunately Leinster ran out winners on this occasion.

Our young swimmers now look forward to the next exciting event for junior swimmers on our calendar – the second round of the Aquasprint League, which takes place on April 1 in Enniskillen .

And that same weekend, Ellie Dunlop, Anna and Kate McDade will be participating in the Irish Open at the NAC.

 

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