Lakelanders Success at Regional Charity Event
10 Jun 2019
To help Northern Ireland’s own Golden Girl, Mary Peters, Swim Ulster organised a gala to help raise funds for “Mary’s Race to £1million”. As the Mary Peter’s Trust prepares to celebrate the Olympic Athletes 80th birthday, more than 400 swimmers descended to the Aurora 50m pool in Bangor for a Level 3 gala enabling swimmers a last opportunity to achieve qualifying times for the Irish Summer Nationals. A team of 16 swimmers participated from the Enniskillen Lakelanders over the two days and each of them were hoping to impress coach Aaron Rickhuss following recent preparations.
Session one began with great swims in the 200m Freestyle for Kealan McShea (Silver in 17 & over), Lewis McCartney (Bronze in 17 & over) and Frank Buchanan – 12th in the 13-14 section. In the 50m Backcrawl 13-14 age group Ellie McCartney broke her PB to win Gold with Cora Cassidy also smashing her PB (3 secs) to finish 7th. Kealan & Lewis then raced in the 100m Backcrawl with Commonwealth Finalist, Conor Ferguson, in the lane between them and came away with a Silver and Bronze respectively – Lewis also picked up a 4th Div 1 time. Frank Buchanan finished 7th while younger brother Tom (11-12 age) demolished is PB by 8 seconds to come 18th. The success continued in the 100m Breaststroke with Anna McDade & Molly Johnston winning Silver and Bronze in the 13-14 section. Emilie Reihill PB’d to finish 15th in the same group and Lauren Kearney placed 9th in the 15-16 section. Lewis achieved his 3rd Bronze and a PB in the 200m IM while younger sister Ellie dominated the 800m Freestyle leading from the start to win Gold with a new PB of 10:01.51 and a ninth Div 1 time.
The second session kicked off with the 100m Freestyle 13-14 age group and PBs were recorded by Ellie McCartney (Silver), Emilie Reihill (7th and a Div 1 time) and Anna McDade (16th). Cora Cassidy, Molly Johnston and Lauren Keaney (15-16) swam well to post great times. Frank Buchanan swam to a top 10 finish in the 400m Freestyle then Ellie McCartney success in the pool continued with Gold in the gruelling 400m IM and finished as the fastest swimmer in any age in that event. Luke Aiken had arrived and smashed his PB in the 100m Fly to finish 12th in the 15-16 age group and achieving his first qualifying time. In the 200m Backcrawl Emilie Reihill demolished 16 seconds off here previous best time to finish 8th. The fastest event of the meet followed with Lewis McCartney picking up a Bronze in the 50m Freestyle. Kealan McShea finished fourth with a PB. Tom Buchanan (Div 2 time), Frank Buchanan and Luke Aiken all swam to great PBS with Luke winning an exciting heat. Ellie McCartney and Cora Cassidy continued the excellent swimming with PBs in the 50m Butterfly finishing with Silver Medal and 8th respectively. The final individual event of the session was 50m Breaststroke where Lewis McCartney (6th) and Kealan McShea (7th) finished with additional best ever times. As part of the unique Meet existing Mary Peters Trust funded swimmers were tasked to engage with a former funded swimmer along with two age group swimmers to make up a mixed Medley and Freestyle Relay. Current MPT swimmer enlisted the help of Commonwealth swimmer and one of the fastest swimmers in Ireland, Danielle Hill, on to her team along two other swimmers to compete and they finished third overall.
Session three saw 5 swimmers in the girls 13-14 200m Freestyle with Ellie McCartney winning Gold and Emilie Reihill just missing out on the medals finishing 4th with a massive PB. Izzy Lannon finished 7th, Ciosa McConnell 13th (with a 5.5 sec PB) and Cora Cassidy 24th. Kealan McShea received his first Gold of the meet with a PB in the 50m Backcrawl while Jamie Lannon (Bronze) and Hayden James both achieved PBs to finish with 3rd and 9th respectively. A 5th Gold followed for Ellie in the 100m Backcrawl where Emilie Reihill PB’d to finish 14 and Cora Cassidy finished 22nd. Jamie achieved another medal, this time Silver in the 200m Butterfly (Youngest swimmer in the event) with a new 2 second PB while Molly finished 6th in the 200m Breaststroke with a Div 1 time and Ciosa 7th. Kealan swam to a second Gold in the 100m Breaststroke breaking 1:14 for the 1st time while Jamie and Hayden were 8th and 23rd. There were four great performances in the 200m IM with Ellie winning Gold, Isobel 12th, Anna 16th and Emilie 23rd with a 5 second PB. The session finished with Ben Lynch winning Gold in the 1500m but more importantly his 800m split sees him achieve another Div 1 time.
The meet finished on Sunday afternoon with more fantastic best - ever times. Session 4 kicked off with 100m Freestyle and a 4th place for Ben, 6th for Jamie, 19th for Frank, 20th for Luke and 23 for Hayden – just around his PB. This was followed by 400m Freestyle were Ellie secured a Gold Medal, Emilie 7th, Ciosa 14th and Cora 18th – the latter 3 with PBs. Ellie was back in action 20 minutes later in the 100m Butterfly to post a new PB for a Silver Medal while Izzy placed 13th in the age group. Tom Buchanan swam 200m Backcrawl for the first time and finished 15th in a time of 3:21.93 as well as achieving the last of his qualifying times. Six of the girls featured in the 50m Freestyle with many PBs but more importantly a Div 1 time for Emilie (finishing 7th) and a Div 2 time for Cora (31st). Izzy swam to 9th (narrowly missing a Div 1 time), Anna 10th, Molly 26th and Ciosa 37th. Luke was the sole Lakelander in the 50m Fly for boys and took off 1.6 seconds to finish 7th. In the final event of the day Ellie McCartney crowned her weekend off but once again being the fastest girl in the pool in 50m Breaststroke to win an 8th Gold Medal and her 11th Medal in 11 events. Anna had a slight PB but just missed out on the medals and Ciosa finished a great weekend with another top 10 finish.
Coach Aaron Rickhuss was extremely pleased with the performances for the young Lakelanders squad with many of the swimmers even surprising themselves. The Coach stated, “At the start of this year we began with a few swimmers aiming for the Irish National Championships and now we have a full team ready to challenge the rest of the country’s best at the Championships in July”. The Gala was a massive success and raised £13,000 for the MPT as well as bringing home lots of medals; 11 Gold, 7 Silver and 6 Bronze. The team amassed more than 40 personal best times with Emilie Reihill and Tom Buchanan recording best ever times in all 8 of her events. Roll on the Summer Nationals.
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This gala series is for swimmers aged 10-14 and provides competitive racing opportunities at junior level.
Several medals and lots of new personal best times were secured by the young Lakelanders who displayed their continual improvement and commitment to the sport. - 23 Mar 2025Lakelanders Aquasprinters Victorious over Belfast Olympia
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The Aquasprint league, sponsored by Forest Feast, is a starting point for the younger swimmers to compete in all strokes in individual and relays over 25m. Aquasprints are a great opportunity for children to build on what they have been learning in the pool with coaches Ben and Claire, adding speed to this and a competitive edge. - 15 Mar 2025Ellie and Hannah swim for Ulster
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