OVER 1400 swimmers converged on the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre over the weekend for the Victorian State Age Short Course Championships – and Mansfield was amongst them for the first time in over 12 years.

With a busy three-day program from Friday to Sunday – and two indoor 25-metre pools running consecutively over the six sessions – it was a whirlwind of the best 12 to 18-year-old swimmers in the state.

Keziah Wolfe (13) kicked off on Friday morning, contesting the 100-metre breaststroke and the 200-metre freestyle, coming away with new personal best times in both events.

After a busy season of short course racing, for her to still be hitting PBs at this stage was definitely unexpected.

She followed up on Saturday morning with one of her favourites – the 100-metre Individual Medley (one lap of each stroke) – achieving another PB.

Saturday night saw our 12 to 14-year-old medley relay team of Kezi, Lara Seaton (12), Quinn Harwood (14), and Rowena Creighton (12) take on the pool with incredible results.

Despite swimming this relay combination for the first time the week before at training, they managed to drop a whopping 10 seconds off their entry time, jumping from 55th seed to finish in 44th position overall.

An amazing achievement against some very strong clubs.

Sunday morning saw us back at the pool for the last of the individual events.

Kezi started off with her fourth event for the weekend in the 100-metre backstroke, then completed her meet with the fast and furious 50-metre freestyle, pulling in personal best times in both events.

A cracking meet for Keziah.

Rowena took off from the blocks in the 12-year-olds' 50-metre freestyle after a wobbly start with her marshalling but showed resilience, still managing to hit a personal best time.

Coaches Alli Walker and Amelie Walker were incredibly proud of the swimmers – especially considering their pool training schedules drastically reduce over winter without a local pool.

Team Mansfield is looking forward to the 50-metre long course season starting in October, and our pool opening in November.