Medal magnet laps it up

By Gavin Staindl
LED by Boys’ champion Matson Lawson, the Casey TigerSharks have held onto their ranking as the state’s third best junior club at the State Age Championships last month.
Not only did they defend their ranking from last year but they doubled their overall performance score.
The TigerSharks finished on 854 in 2009 but blew that total out to 1742 after last month’s six-day swim meet.
Overall, Casey finished 200 points clear of nearest rivals Haileybury and closed the gap on swimming powerhouses Melbourne Vicentre and Nunawading.
This was due in part to Matson Lawson who accumulated three individual gold and six silver medals.
The under-18 Boys’ champion hit his straps in the final few days of the meet claiming gold in the 100 metre and 200 metre backstroke as well as the 400m individual medley. He also led the under-18 individual medley relay team and the 4 x 100m freestyle team to a gold and silver respectively.
Ten-year-old Jake Duggan also turned a few heads after he collected three gold medals and two bronze in the older age group of 11-and-under while Craig Watson continued his good form with three gold medals.
The TigerSharks boys dominated the pool and finished in second position, 80 points clear of Melbourne.
Meanwhile, the female contingent improved on their sixth from last year and finished fifth in the overall girls’ score.
Leading the girls was 14-year-old Karly Mansfield who was unlucky not to be named female champion in the under-15 category after she was pipped by four points – the equivalent of one placing.
But her three individual gold and two silver medals added to the overall Casey tally of 60 medals; a significant increase from their 41 last year.
Other stand-out performers were Mitchell Pratt, 15, and Shaun Banzon, 11, who finished with three medals each.
Assistant coach Julian Roberts said it was all about quality and not quantity for the TigerSharks.
“Ben Hiddlestone (head coach) and I are just so big on skill,” Roberts said.
“It is so important at a young age to teach them the correct technique … it’s quality over quantity,” she said.
With 170 members, Casey does not have the numbers to match the powerhouse swim clubs. Nunawading and Melbourne each had over 200 qualifiers at last month’s meet, whereas Casey barely scraped over 50. But the performance of those 56 swimmers was enough to give Casey a comfortable lead in third place and send a warning to rivals that they’re only going to get better.
“I could go on and on with kids who performed well … there was a sense of achievement and improvement within the group.
“It’s only a matter of time before we’re right up there,” Roberts said.