THE Mount Isa Heat Swimming team continued their impressive development at the weekend, travelling to Townsville to compete in the North Queensland Championships.
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The group of 35 dedicated athletes were the third largest team at the championships, while they were also the youngest and most inexperienced team over the two day meet.
All competitors put in strong performances, and a high percentage of personal best's were recorded - reflecting the team's impressive work ethic during training.
Mount Isa Heat coach Brian Rodriquez was pleased and proud of his students' results.
"The most positive point moving forward was the club's overall ranking," he said.
"We finished ninth this year which puts us in a good place.
"With the heating recently announced we will be moving to a middle distance based program...due to the seasonal nature of the facility we are currently a sprint based program."
At the North Queensland Championships 50 metre races don't count towards the overall point score, so for the club to get as many points as it did based on their program is a fantastic result.
"The large majority of our medals were in the 50m races," Rodriquez said.
"So with 12 months of work we hope to double our point score and be close to a top five club this time next year."
Rodriquez envisions more trips and swimming carnivals in the future as the club continues to develop and expand.
"Next season we will be looking at three to four trips away so the club can experience these type of meets," he said.
"This will aid in their development, particularly when they trave to events such as state and national championships for the first time.
"When you live in the city or coast you can swim at this level of competition almost every weekend. Out here we don't have that opportunity so we need to make sure we expose our swimmers to this environment as often as possible."
Medal winners
- Meagan Connolly: gold 200m breaststroke, silver 200m IM, silver 100m breaststroke, bronze 400m freestyle
- Annie Norton: gold 100m breaststroke, silver 50m breaststroke, silver 200m breaststroke
- Janye Mete-Kingi: gold 50m backstroke, 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle
- Garth Mete-Kingi: silver 50m backstroke, bronze 50m freestyle
- Ethan Cernoia: bronze 50m butterfly, bronze 50m backstroke, bronze 100m backstroke
- Mikayla Norton: bronze 50m freestyle
Chris Lovejoy bronze 100m backstroke
- Mikayla Norton, Harper-Leigh Flay, Hannah Page, Jayne Mete-Kingi: bronze 8-10 year old 4*50m freestyle relay
