THERE were plenty of medals, personal bests and national championship qualification times from Port Macquarie Piranhas Swimming Club members on the weekend.
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The club sent a big contingent down to Homebush for the Country Championships, and came back with two silver medals, and three bronze.
Grace Bannon and Jeremy Smith won silver medals, while Mekayla Everingham, Bianca Jamison and the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team – consisting of Daniel Diecke, Kolby Kemmett, Clayton Smith and Jeremy Smith – came home with bronze.
Bannon was competing in just her first country championships. Her silver came in the girls 10 years and under 100m breaststroke.
Smith won silver in the open men’s 50m backstroke, before teaming up with his brother Clayton in the relay to get bronze.
Everingham came third in the girls 15 years and over 400m individual medley, while Jamison’s bronze was in the girls 12 years 200m breaststroke.
Lauren Richards made six top-10 places, and came away with two new qualifying times for the National Championships in April.
Kaitlyn Mepstone and Paige Leonhardt will join Richards in Adelaide in April, along with Mekayla Everingham, Jeremy Smith and Diecke.
The 13 and 14 years boys medley relay will appear in Adelaide. Kirkland, Mitchell Everingham, Jacob Foy and Cody Law-Davis will represent Port Macquarie.
The club’s race secretary, Linda Dewbery, said she was proud of the whole team.
“We sent a big, strong team down,” Dewbery said. “There were lots of top-10 finishes, and lots of PBs as well.”
“That’s what got us over the line [in the pointscore],” Dewbery said.
Thirty points went to the winner of each event, and there was a sliding scale from there down.
Swimmers have another chance to qualify for the nationals at the club’s championships this weekend.
The first race is at 10am.