BROPHY MEET REPORT
Ovens and Murray District Association sent a talented team of young swimmers to the Brophy Interdistrict Meet held at the AIS in Canberra on Sunday 28 th March. The team travelled by bus from Wangaratta via Wodonga, North Albury and Holbrook on Saturday spending the late afternoon and evening socialising and sightseeing around Australia 's capital, including a drive up to the Telstra Tower on Black Mountain to view the city's lights.
An early morning start saw the swimmers diving in to compete against 6 other teams from ACT and NSW. There were many medal winning performances on the day with the O&M Team ultimately taking out second place on both the overall points and handicapped points awards which were both won by the strong ACT representative team.
In the 16 and over age group, Will Howard won silver in the breaststroke and freestyle, Grace Harmer took out gold in the backstroke.
15 year old Kyle Whitehead won her butterfly and came third in the breaststroke, backstroke and freestyle.
In the 14 years age group, Jack Synnot won silver in the butterfly and bronze in the backstroke and freestyle while Darcie Clarebrough took out bronze in the backstroke.
13 year olds Jake Colville came second in the freestyle and third in the butterfly and breaststroke with Anislee Copley second in the freestyle and third in the breaststroke.
12 year old Sean Hennessy took out bronze in the freestyle with 11 year old Harrison Macreadie winning his freestyle event.
Heath Macleod came second in the 10 year old boys.
8 year old Austin Shepherd took out silver in the freestyle and gold in the butterfly while Eliza Shiels won bronze in the butterfly.
A number of relay teams also had success with the 10-11 year boys' team consisting of Charlie Spargo, Harrison Macreadie, Ben Bayes Smith and Heath Macleod coming third in the medley relay.
The 12-13 boys' combination of Nathan Rogers, Jake Colville, Ben O'Brien and Sean Hennessy took out bronze in both the freestyle and medley relays.
Ainslee Copley, Kate Brown, Abbey Lawless and Brianna Rogers swam in the girls 12-13 relays coming third in the medley and second in the freestyle events.
14-15 year olds Darcie Clarebrough, Morgan Pitches, Kylie Whitehead and Emma Backhouse earned bronze in both the medley and freestyle relays.
Thomas Shiels, James Walsh, Jack Synnot and Jake Luhrs came third in the boys' 14-15 freestyle relay.
The mixed 16 and over team consisting of Grace Harmer, Will Howard, Jayden Sinclair and Jocelyn Smith took out the silver medals in the freestyle relay.
In the final events, the Boys Open 400m freestyle relay and Girls Open 400m freestyle relay, both Ovens and Murray teams came home strongly to take out second placings.
The trip home was rather longer than expected after the freeway was closed for 2 hours due to a motor vehicle accident but eventually all returned home safely.
Special thanks go to Steve Rogers who coached the kids superbly on the weekend and O&M Anthony Foley who kept everyone organised along with other parent helpers.
