What a weekend that was!!! 3 days of racing in Sydney for 3 of our members at the 2021 Sydney Open & Uni Nationals (13-16 May 2021). This national meet is the last major event and last chance to qualify for the Olympic trials. This meant it attracted big household names such as the likes of Kyle Chalmers, Cate and Bronte Campbell, Emily Seebohm, Kaylee Mckeown, David Morgan, Maddie Wilson, James Roberts, and Jake Packard just to name a few.
As this meet is a combined competition between Uni Nationals and Swimming Australia/NSW, there are 2 main ways swimmers attending can be represented, either by their University that they currently attend or their respective Swimming Australia Swimming Club.
UniSA had 2 representatives, Ethan Crook and Jacob Desmond are both UniSA Students and teammates at Starplex Swim Club. Our other 2 UniSA Swim Club members who represented their respective clubs were Andrew Truong (The Parks Swim Club) and Shelby Gristede (Warrnambool Swim Club). Andrew is also acting as Team Manager for Ethan and Jacob under the University of South Australia National Team.
Day 1 of Heats saw Ethan and Jacob swim the 100m Freestyle and Shelby swam the 200m Backstroke and 50m Butterfly. Both Ethan and Jacob were glad to have the 100m Freestyle over and done with early and finish the meet with just 2 x 50m races on days 2 and 3, whereas Shelby still had 3 more swims to go in the next 2 days.
Day 2 saw the arrival of Andrew at the pool where he joined Ethan and Jacob in the 50m Butterfly and Shelby had the 100m Backstroke and 50m Freestyle. Day 2 was a longer session and all the swimmers were looking forward to a good night's rest before the last day of heats the next day.
Day 3 was a nice short session for the 4 swimmers with only the 50m Freestyle for the boys and 50m Backstroke for Shelby.
Shelby had a huge meet for her first nationals with a whopping 5 swims over 3 days. There were a mixture of good and bad swims and missing finals by 0.01s on the last day. It started with the 50m Butterfly where she didn't have the best start but was able to compose herself during the race and came back strong with a PB of 31.90 by 0.33. The 200m Backstroke was up shortly where she swam a time of 2:43.95. Day 2 saw Shelby swim a 1:15.53 for her 100m Backstroke and 30.49 (PB of all time) for the 50m Freestyle. Shelby then finished off with the 50m Backstroke on day 3 where she missed C finals by 0.01s with a time of 34.50 (PB of all time). It was a great meet from Shelby with lots of PBs over the 3 days and a learning experience from her first national meet. The obsession over Cody Simpson wore off pretty quickly when one sees a pop star on a regular basis over the 3 days.
Ethan started off his nationals meet with the 100m Freestyle, touching the wall in 54.13 recording his 2nd fastest time. He backed this swim-up with his 50m Butterfly on day 2 coming in with a time of 26.54. Ethan looked good in his 50m Butterfly considering he had an outside lane for both the 100m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly. Luckily, Ethan was able to snag a middle lane in his 50m Freestyle but wasn't able to get the time he was hoping for but still touched the wall with a competitive time of 24.31. Ethan will be competing at Olympic trials in the 50m Freestyle in June against some big guns such as Kyle Chalmers.
Andrew had 2 short quick swims over 2 days, starting off with the 50m Butterfly touching the wall in a time of 28.48 and broke his own club (The Parks Swim Club) record and swam a personal best by 1.16s. He then followed it up with the 50m Freestyle where he didn't get the time or start he wanted as he dove in too deep and lost some crucial speed. He was able to touch the wall in a time of 27.51 which also a PB but was just off breaking his club record by 0.11s.
Result summary:
Shelby:
50m Butterfly: 31.90 (PB) = Placing 95th
200m Backstroke: 2:43.95 = Placing 32nd
100m Backstroke: 1:15.53 = Placing 57th
50m Freestyle: 30.49 (PB) = Placing 126th
50m Backstroke: 34.50 (PB) = Placing 50th
Ethan:
100m Freestyle: 54.13 = Placing 85th
50m Butterfly: 26.54 = Placing 53rd
50m Freestyle: 24.31 = Placing 50th
Andrew:
50m Butterfly: 28.48 (PB) = Placing 85th
50m Freestyle: 27.51 (PB) = Placing 133rd
Congratulations to all of our Swim Club Members for competing at a National stage and Jacob Desmond for representing the University of South Australia. We are hoping Jacob will be joining the UniSA Swim Club team soon, and looking forward to him competing at Masters for us at Relays and State Long Course.
While Uni Nationals was happening in NSW, we had some of our club swimmers swim at Interclub 1 at Marion on Sunday 16th. Click here to read more about Interclub 1 and how that went...