Presentation Celebrations

Presentation Gallery 

The Traralgon Presentation Night was a wonderful night of celebration of the talent, endeavour and accomplishments of the swimmers and coaches of the Traralgon Swimming Club.  Beginning with a visual and verbal re-cap of the past season, the evening included trophy presentations and expressions of gratitude to both coaches and Traralgon’s hard working parents.

The Club welcomed Life Member and former coach Ben Geard, who travelled from Cairns to be with the team for the festivities.  It was great to have Ben there to share in the Team’s night of celebration when he was very much a part of the past season. Other special guests included Life Members Brian and Michelle Ford, Heather Haney and Bruce Wright and his wife, Una.  Member for Morwell, Russell Northe and Latrobe City Mayor and Traralgon Councillor Dale Harriman were also in attendance.

Strength and Conditioning Coach Sam Fenton was honoured with Life Membership to the Club.  Sam has been working closely with Brian and the club coaches for 13 years and in his work with swimmers –in building strength and conditioning, preaching the benefits of hydration, good nutrition and healthy lifestyle, and in managing injury – has played a huge role in the current success we enjoy.  Brian presented the award to Sam on behalf of the Club recalling his early involvement and the evolution of Sam’s role and impact.  We congratulate Sam, the 15^th Life Member of the Traralgon Swimming Club.

Kaz O’Keefe was awarded the Bruce Cain Outstanding Contribution to the Club trophy for her many different roles and contributions to the club over the past 10 years.  Kaz in one of our cheerful and enthusiastic workers who supports everything and everyone.  We congratulate and extend heartfelt thanks to Kaz.

Swimmers were awarded Club trophies for participation and contribution to the club.  Age Champions were also awarded based on points earned during the season.  Swimmers were also awarded Coach’s Trophies chosen by the squad coaches and based on a host of criteria from effort and leadership to disposition and co-operation.   These awards are amongst the most coveted and much thought goes into their selection.  We thank the coaches for their thoughtful consideration of swimmers for awards and for their presentations on the night.  A full list of trophies follows.

We give the AGL Loy Yang Encouragement Award, this year to Sienna Affleck, to encourage swimmers who are showing potential and progress – a hard one to award as it could apply to so many!  And we also award the Gippsland Windows and Doors First year Swimmer with Potential.  This year that award went Flynn McLuckie.  11 year old Flynn is new to our club this year and his coaches are delighted with his progress and clearly see there is potential there.  Keep up the good work, Flynn and Sienna.

The Meyer Family trophy for highest FINA Points went to Emily Beecroft whose Multi-Class 50 fly at National Age earned 994 FINA points.  Congratulations to Emily.  Emily was also given the LaTrobe Financial Swimmer with a Disability Swimmer of the Year trophy for her outstanding results throughout the season in Multi-Class events.

Brian awarded the Brian Ford Trophy for Best Relay Performance of the Season to Connor O’Neill for his backstroke leg in the Open 4×100 Medley Relay at Country Championships.  Connor set up the boys for a close win (.2) over the Shepparton team with a pb in that event.  Congratulations Connor!

We thanked Swimmers who have been involved in the club for 10 years or more with Service Awards. Erin and Sam Roberts, Maggie O’Keefe, Stephanie Spehar, Georgia Collings and Brayden Haney started as juniors in 2005 and have been involved consistently ever since.

Throughout the night swimmers were recognised for improvement in their times.  This is calculated based on last year’s best times or times from the beginning of this year – for new swimmers – and then the best times from this season.  Events up to 100m are included in this calculations.  The LaTrobe Financial Most Improved awards are for 10 & Under and 11 & Over.  We congratulate these swimmers (listed below).

Molly Cargill won the trophy for the Ikin Family Trophy for Most points in the Gippsland Fixture – following on from winning the same award at the Gippsland Championships.  Molly swims often in Gippsland and with great results.

Finally our top Ten Ten was announced and the winner of the Kathleen Froud Memorial Club Champion. This season for the second year in a row, Mikaela Cornelissen was the Top Swimmer in the Club.  Mikaela’s performance at Open Swim meets, including Open Nationals, gave her an incredible point score of more than 13,000 points.

Thank-you to our Captains and Vice-Captains, Erin, Caiden, Matt and Mikaela who made presentations thanking coaches Brian, Dean, Sam and Cameron.  They prepared and spoke very well on our behalf.

Sincere thanks to the many photographers who contributed to the visual pleasure of the evening – and especially to Michael Mihaly and Wayne Moon.  Michael’s dinner-time slide show was especially entertaining.

Thank you to Heather Haney for her help with the presentations on the night and again to Heather and to Michael, Robyn, Caitlin and Ashleigh Mihaly and Liz Bell for their help with the set-up of the trophies and nibbles on tables.  Thank-you to Mario and his team at the Premier Function Centre for a wonderful night!