Castlebar - County Mayo - Castlebar Swimming Club Update

RECORDS TUMBLE AS HOLLAND TAKES GOLD AT IRISH SENIOR SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS!

Cian Holland from Castlebar Swimming Club, was in absolutely brilliant form at the Irish Senior Schools Championships which were held in Cork on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th February.
Cian, who was representing St. Gerald’s, Castlebar, smashed his other Connacht Junior Record, in the Senior 100m Butterfly event as he destroyed the field to take the gold medal.

Cian will now go forward with the Irish Schools Team to swim in Scotland on March 23rd/24th. This is a wonderful achievement of which Castlebar Swimming Club are extremely proud. The Relay Teams from St. Gerald’s were also in impressive form. The Senior Medley Relay team of Ciaran Garrick, Colm Garrick, Darragh Quinn and Cian Holland took Silver in the final. The Freestyle team, comprising of Jimmy Wiseman, Colm Garrick, Ciaran Garrick and Cian Holland were Bronze medallists. Again congratulations to all involved, on these wonderful results.

Representing St. Joseph’s Castlebar, Laura English held her own against the top swimmers in the country by reaching the final of the Intermediate 100m Breaststroke, where she came 4th.
Laura Keaveney also reached the final of the Junior 100m Butterfly- here she came 5th with a very fine swim in a personal best time.

Colm Garrick, as well as contributing to the great successes of the relay teams, produced fine swims in his individual events also. Colm produced “Nationals” qualifying times in the Intermediate 100m Backstroke where he was reserve finalist, and in the 100m Breaststroke.

Joseph Moran was also reserve finalist, in the Senior 100m Backstroke event.

Darragh Quinn, in addition to his Medley Relay Team contribution, had fine swims in the Intermediate 100m Butterfly and 100m Breastroke events, producing personal best times in both.

Other swimmers to represent their schools at the Irish Senior Schools Championships were:
Jill Magee and Sarah Wiseman, St. Joseph’s, Castlebar.
Anthony English and Michael Walls, St. Gerald’s, Castlebar.
Zoe Davis, Sacred Heart, Westport and
Dara Dever , Rice College, Westport.

LEISURELAND INTERNATIONAL, GALWAY

The top senior swimmers from the Castlebar club pitted themselves against the best in the world at the Leisureland International meet which was held in Galway on 15th/16th/17th February. Here, they showed that they can hold their own, not just locally but nationally as well.

Among the top performers were the English sisters, Sara & Laura, who featured strongly in the Breaststroke events. Laura reached the “B” final of the 200m Breaststroke where she swam an excellent race to finish 2nd. She also reached the “B” final of the 100m Breaststroke where she finished 4th. Sara was also in top form, coming 2nd in the “B” final of the 50m Breaststroke and in 3rd place in the “B” final of the 100m Breaststroke and was reserve finalist in the 50m Backstroke.

Cian Holland, rarely out of the swimming headlines, came 5th in the final of the 25m Freestyle; 2nd in the “B” final of the 100m Butterfly and was reserve finalist in the 200m Butterfly.

Joseph Moran came 7th in the gruelling 1500m event.

Colm Garrick acquitted himself very well in the 50m Breaststroke & 50m Backstroke.

The Mens Relay Team secured a place in the final of the 4x50m Freestyle event, but in the final of the 4x50m Medley event, where they also featured, they snatched the Connacht Junior Record, to round off a most successful weekend. The team included Colm Garrick, Ciaran Garrick, Cian Holland and Joseph Moran and this record reflects the endless training and dedication of these swimmers.

ANOTHER CONNACHT RECORD AND
GOLDS GALORE FOR CASTLEBAR SWIMMERS AT T.S.B. GALA

Castlebar Swimming Club hosted its Annual Grade “A” Gala, generously sponsored by T.S.B. Bank, on Sunday 24th February.

This event, as usual, attracted a huge entry from the top clubs in Connaught, including Athlone Aces, Ballina, Claremorris, Falcon (Galway), Galway Swimming Club, Laser, Longford, RAGS, Sligo and Tuam and the spectator area was packed to capacity.

To the delight of the home crowd, the local swimmers certainly held their own against the very best, with many spectacular individual and team performances.

The highlight of a very long and tough day of swimming was the setting of a new Connaught Junior Record by the Boys Senior Team of Joseph Moran, Colm Garrick, Cian Holland and Ciaran Garrick in the Medley Relay event.

The boys had already performed admirably in their individual events.

Cian Holland, fresh from his record breaking swim at the Irish Senior Schools, had taken gold in the Senior 100m Freestyle and was a finalist in the 100m Backstroke.
Joseph Moran had taken Silver in the Senior 100m Butterfly in a personal best time.

Ciaran Garrick was a finalist in the Senior 100m Freestyle and Colm Garrick was a finalist in the Senior 100m Breaststroke. But they certainly kept the best wine till last as they swam to a new Connacht Junior Record in the 4x50m Medley Team Relay. Joseph Moran led them off in the Backstroke, then Colm Garrick took over the Breaststroke leg, Cian Holland stormed out in the Butterfly and then Ciaran Garrick finishing the Freestyle leg in style, a new record of 1:56.52 was set, as fully deserved by this Senior Team. This was, in fact, the second time in one week that the Connacht Junior Medley Relay Record had been broken by this team – just seven days earlier, they snatched the record at the Leisureland International Meet in Galway. These boys certainly are firing of all cylinders this season, and are providing perfect role models for the younger swimmers in Castlebar Swimming Club.

These younger swimmers too, gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about:

Shenagh O’Byrne was in brilliant form in the girls U. 11 category. She destroyed the field in the final of the 100m Butterfly to take Gold in a personal best time. Shenagh continued this good form in the final of the 100m Freestyle event to take Gold again in another personal best and Division 1 qualifying time. She then went of to help the Girls U. 11 Relay Team to victory in the 4x50m Medley Relay Event. The team which included Emma Hynes (who was also reserve finalist in the 100m Freestyle), Annie McCormack and Leagh O’Byrne, had a very comfortable win over nearest rivals Galway and Tuam.
Another swimmer in sparkling form was Darragh Quinn, in the U. 15 category. Darragh had a wonderful swim in the final of the 100m Breaststroke to take the Gold and in a very exciting 100m Freestyle final was just pipped into Silver medal position.

Another silver medallist was Zoe Davis in the final of the girls U. 15 100m Butterfly, who just edged past clubmate Laura Keaveney in a very exciting finish. Laura and Zoe, together with Sarah Wiseman and Avril Egan had fine swims in the U.15 4x50m Medley Relay to take Silver.

The Senior Girls Relay – Laura English, Sara English, Jill Magee and Ciara McGowan were also silver medalists following fine swims in the 4x50m Medley Relay Event.

Other Bronze medal winners were:
Dara Dever following an excellent swim in the Senior 100m Breaststroke. Brian Moran, with a great swim in the U.15 100m Backstroke. Jill Magee, in the Senior 100m Backstoke event and Nicholas Quinn in the U. 11 100m Butterfly. The Boys U.11 4x50m Medley Relay Team which included James Caulfield, Diarmaid Joyce, Nicholas Quinn and Edward O’Byrne completed the line up of medals by taking Bronze in that event.

Other finalists in this competitive field were :

Conal Joyce – U.13 100m Butterfly,
Elaine Joyce – U.13 100m Butterfly,
Laura English - Senior 100m Butterfly and Freestyle,
Sara English - Senior 100m Butterfly and Freestyle and
Ciara McGowan - Senior 100m Breaststroke.

And reserve finalists included :

Aisling Bourke and Sarah Caulfield - U.13 100m Butterfly,
Sarah Wiseman - U.15 100m Breaststroke,
Jimmy Wiseman - Sen. 100m Butterfly & Breaststroke,
Michael Walls - Sen. 100m Breaststroke, and
Eva Walls - Sen. 100m Breaststroke.

The medals were presented by Ms. Niamh Mannion from TSB Bank, Castlebar. The Swimming Club are extremely grateful for their kind and continued sponsorship of this event and thank TSB Bank most sincerely.

Much credit is due to Francois Rossi (Head Coach) and Marian English (Club Coach), Anne Wiseman and Jackie Hynes for the excellent performances of these “A” swimmers.

Many thanks to Linda McCaffrey for the endless work which has to be done in preparation for this major event; to Mary Caulfield and the parents committee for their excellent catering. Finally, heartiest congratulations to all our swimmers – the Record Breakers, medal winners, finalists and all who represented the club with such pride and success, some for the very first time at a Grade “A” Gala.