Sunday’s Metropolitan South All-Junior Elimination Heats demonstrated the talents of Casey TigerSharks, front from left, Fletcher Cunningham, Jake Templar, Jake Duggan, middle, Elise Corbett, Olivia Raiti, Ben Lodder, Matthew Shaw, and back, Thomas Boatman, Dillon Bicsak and Arnon Lodder.By Marc McGowan
A BRILLIANT showing from the Casey TigerSharks’ nine-year-old ‘awesome foursome’ headlined the club’s efforts at Sunday’s Metropolitan South All-Junior Elimination Heats.
The top-10 placegetters in each race went through to the Metropolitan All-Junior Finals on 5 and 6 April, with 21 TigerSharks qualifying for the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre meet.
The competition is broken into four districts – South, North, East and West – before they come together for the Metropolitan All-Junior Finals.
Nine-year-olds Matthew Shaw, Jake Templar, Ben Lodder and Fletcher Cunningham provided plenty of highlights on their way to qualifying in each of the four strokes.
Shaw was the best of the four, touching the wall first in the 50-metre freestyle and finishing second in the other three disciplines.
Eight-year-old whiz kid Jake Duggan was Casey’s individual stand-out after flogging his rivals in winning each of his four events.
TigerSharks head coach Ben Hiddlestone was impressed by his young charges’ performances, highlighting Duggan and Shaw in particular.
“Jake had some fantastic swims,” Hiddlestone said.
“As he gets older he will get more and more competition, so we will see how far he can stay ahead.
“Matthew Shaw also had some great swims and has only really started training properly in the last six months.”
Fourteen-year-old Jacob Kennedy (50m breaststroke), 13-year-old Thomas Boatman (50m freestyle), 10-year-old Arnon Lodder (50m backstroke and breaststroke) and nine-year-old Templar (50m breaststroke) also recorded victories.
Kennedy, 14-year-old Dillon Bicsak, 12-year-old Olivia Raiti and nine-year-old Elise Corbett joined the nine-year-old sensations and Duggan in qualifying in all four strokes.
“It is more of an accomplishment to make the top 10 in Metro South than, for example, Metro West,” Hiddlestone said.
“Melbourne VicCentre, Haileybury Waterlions and ourselves are all in Metro South and we’re three of the top six clubs in Victoria.
“Generally, when we go to compete at the semis, our Metro South kids do very well.”
Hiddlestone has earmarked Duggan, Arnon Lodder, Shaw and Templar as some of the brightest prospects in the club.
He is also keen to improve Casey’s depth in the female ranks and sees Corbett and Raiti as key figures in that goal.
There is plenty else happening at the TigerSharks, with Hiddlestone preparing to take a 30-strong squad to the Tasmanian Age Championships from 8 to 10 March.
The primary goal of the trip to the Apple Isle is to bolster Casey’s qualifiers for April’s Australian Age Championships.
The meet is the last chance to qualify, and one TigerShark who is desperate to slash his time is Boatman, who is just 0.03 of a second from the national time in the 13-year-old boys’ 100m freestyle.
Hiddlestone also has plans to take several of his swimmers overseas to compete in 2009.
“Tassie will also be our team trip for the year – it was the Gold Coast last year,” he said.
“I’m hoping to take some of the more elite kids to Japan next year because I speak Japanese and lived there for seven years.
“It would be great for the guys to get that kind of experience out of the sport.”
