TigerSharks juniors rule the waves

THE Casey TigerSharks have rapidly become one of the state’s best swim teams but now they’re making a splash on the airwaves too.
The innovative thinking TigerSharks hosted their second annual Qualifying Meet on Sunday, but they did it this time with the addition of Casey’s talkback radio station, 97.7 FM, on deck for a live broadcast.
In front of 1000 spectators at Cranbourne’s RACE, the radio station hosted phone interviews with Australian representatives Liesel Jones, Sophie Edington and Sarah Katsoulis and conducted post-race interviews with winners.
TigerSharks coach Ben Hiddlestone was on deck with microphone in hand to quiz the winners as soon as they stepped from the pool while president Terry Gleeson joined the rest of the 97.7 presenters in chatting with sponsors and various swimming officials and guests.
The TigerSharks also introduced touch pads and automatic timing systems for greater accuracy in finishing times and added a mini-grandstand to cater for the significant increase in participants.
“It was a massive difference compared to the last qualifying meet,” coach Hiddlestone said.
“It was much more professionally run and better attended this year.
“Our aim is to make this regional competition a regular on everyone’s calendar,” he said.
Teams from as far as Nunawading, Mornington, Ivanhoe and Sale sent their best swimmers to the meet and despite the increase in talent Casey was still able to swim away with 17 gold medals.
Heading the list was Dylan Warren who – on his 18th birthday – claimed three gold medals.
Cheered on by team-mates waving birthday balloons, Warren dominated in the freestyle events, taking out the 200-metres, 400m and 1500m before being presented with a sponge cake as he emerged from the pool from his final race.
Stephanie Demestichas was also prominent in the freestyle, winning the 200m and 400m freestyle events for the open category.
In the under-13 category, Lodder Arnold was the best placed TigerShark winning the 100m and 200m breast-stroke events.
But it was 14-year-old Helen Lietzow who got the most from Sunday’s event.
With less than two months before the National Age Championships, time was running out for swimmers to qualify; so Lietzow can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that her time of 2.27.8 in the 200m backstroke was enough for her to qualify for the championships to be held in South Australia in April.
Meanwhile, 24 under-15 TigerSharks juniors have progressed to next month’s Metro All Junior Championships after qualifying in elimination finals last month.