Casey TigerSharks presentation night winners, back, from left, best junior female swimmer and Mayfield Encouragement Award Olivia Raiti, best junior male swimmer Matthew Charlesworth, and front, best senior female swimmer Jemma Phillips, competitor award Sarah Corbett and encouragement award Tawnie Bevilacqua.By Marc McGowan
CASEY TigerSharks head coach Ben Hiddlestone has put the onus on his female contingent to maintain the club’s stunning improvement in recent years.
The TigerSharks celebrated another successful season in the pool with an event at Amstel Golf Club, Cranbourne, on Friday night.
But Hiddlestone made it clear his male swimmers’ stand-out performances could only take Casey so far.
“At the Victorian Age Championships in January, our guys’ team finished third and the girls came 18th, so we’re definitely looking for more from the girls,” he said.
“The guys can’t go much further; there are only two ahead of them – Melbourne VicCentre and Nunawading – so we’re looking for the girls to go from 18th into the top 10.”
Trent Lindsey and Jemma Phillips claimed the best senior male and female swimmer awards respectively, while Matt Charlesworth and Olivia Raiti won the junior equivalents.
It was a particularly successful night for Raiti, with Casey councillor Kevin Bradford presenting her with the inaugural Mayfield Encouragement Award.
“It’s good to be able to reward someone who is not winning races yet, but is doing all the hard work and is fighting above her weight category, and is very skilled,” Hiddlestone said.
“The award was for someone who was battling, who was a bit of an underdog, and I had a chat with (committee member) Sue Dobrunz about who would be the likely candidate and Olivia was on top of the list.”
The TigerSharks produced club-best ranking results last season in finishing sixth at the Victorian Age Championships and 32nd at the Australian Age Championships.
A record 12 Casey representatives qualified for the Australian Age Championships, with Lindsey and break-out star McKenzie Cunningham earning the club its first medals at a national competition.
Those medals, coupled with the TigerSharks’ overall result, helped Hiddlestone win the Swimming Victoria coaches’ best new talent award, which he will receive on 12 July.
Other season highlights included 15-year-old Craig Watson and 18-year-old Brad York being named the top swimmers in their age groups at the Victorian Age Championships.
Hiddlestone also hopes the appointment of assistant coach James Fox late last year will take his club to a new level.
“I’m looking forward to having James on board for a full season because going into state champs last year we were hiring any coach off the street to help with our squads,” he said.
“James is already looking at states and is targeting that meet in January and has taken over our state squad, giving us a lot better coaching set up.
“Hopefully we can get good state results from our state squad – not just the 22 in the national squad.”
Hiddlestone is gunning for 15 of his swimmers to qualify for the Australian Age Championships next year, earmarking debuts for Raiti, Charlesworth and Liam Etheve.
He is tipping big things for breaststroke prospect Tyrone Dobrunz, who is already a national qualifier and triple state medallist, butterfly dynamo Raiti and all-rounder Arnon Lodder this season.
But Hiddlestone’s major focus is on developing his female core.
“I’m hoping Olivia (Raiti), Jemma (Phillips), Steph (Demestichas) and Aleysha (Tokai), the main girls in our national squad, can bring up the points score and start our female team dominating,” he said.
“Once Craig (Watson), Trent (Lindsey) and Brad (York) started training and winning races together, the other guys fed off that vibe and we’re very close to getting that with our girls.”
