The might of the Marlins was on full show over the weekend as the Macksville Squad sent their largest ever contingent of swimmers to the State Country Championships in the big smoke.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It's always a tough gig for our swimmers, pitted against the Hunter, Central Coast and South Sydney squads with their year-round heated pools, meaning their preparation can start in August.
With the Macksville pool only reopening in October, our swimmers are forced to play catch-up; clocking up kilometres in the water, without a Christmas break, to rebuild their fitness and endurance before a truncated training to build up speed.
This significant disadvantage helps put the Marlins' stellar results over the weekend into context.
For the first time in a long while, the Macksville squad entered a relay team into the Championships.
Being a smaller club, it can often be a challenge to find four swimmers of the right age, and with the speed needed to enter a team.
But this year Jaxon White (12), Cohen Welsh (12), Bailey Pickvance (10) and Kirby Welsh (10) had what it took to swim in the 12 and Under Boys Medley and Freestyle Relays.
For three of the boys it was the first time they'd attended the Championships. But you wouldn't have known it, watching them swim.
The adrenaline raced through their bodies as they ripped through the water, each boy recording personal best times in both legs they swam.
And collectively the boys took six seconds off their best time in the Medley Relay.
"They came sixth in both relays, but you'd have thought they'd won gold medals everyone was that excited," Lyndel Sutton said, one of four Marlin mums who travelled down as team cheer squad.
Leah Pickvance rocketed through the water in her 12 years' 100m Freestyle, earning a bronze medal and a personal best time at 1.02.21.
"Leah fought well to get on that wall for her bronze," Lyndel said.
Leah also clocked two other Top 10 results: fourth in the 100m Butterfly, and sixth in the 50m Freestyle.
Cohen Welsh also earned a Top 10 individual ranking, with a fifth in his 12 years 100m Backstroke event.
Seventeen-year-old Declan Sutton was competing in the Opens division for the first time, up against athletes in their 20s. And yet, he too managed some incredible results: fourth in the 50m Backstroke, and sixth in the 100m Freestyle with a personal best time which has seen him qualify for that event (and the 50m Back) in the Australian Swimming Championships in Perth in April.
Meanwhile 10-year-olds Keeley Sutton and Kirby Welsh swam so strongly in their very first Country Championships at the weekend that they both came away with qualifying times in 50m Freestyle for the Junior NSW State Age Championships next month.
Jazmin Sutton and Darcy Welsh swam their hearts out and shaved seconds off their best times too.
Coach Renee Pickvance was kept busy preparing the nine swimmers over the three days, but was reportedly "stoked" at the results.
Congratulations also to local swimming star Millie Edwards-Bradshaw who won gold in the 100m Butterfly and silver in the 200m Medley with the Coffs squad.