Isaac Jones: nine gold medals.
TWO state records to superfish Isaac Jones headlined Warrnambool Swimming Club’s (wsc) most successful Victorian country shortcourse titles in history.
Isaac set new marks in the open 400 metres freestyle and 16-17 years 100-metre freestyle, earning him two of his nine gold medals.
The 17-year-old clocked 3.56.11 in the 400 metres and 51.69 in the 100 metres to further enhance his swimming resume.
WSC coach Jayson Lamb said Isaac’s’ 400-metres swim was the ninth fastest posted in Australia this year.
“No one really knew how good a swim it was,” he said.
“He literally had lapped the field and they did know it was good, but as far as breaking records no one knew.
“There’s no world record line like on TV.”
Among the other gold medals Isaac won were the challenging 100-metre and 200-metre individual medleys.
He also won a silver to take his medal haul to 10.
Lamb said he was stunned with the efforts of the 35-member team.
Warrnambool won 30 medals and almost doubled its points tally to place second in the club standings, behind Traralgon.
“Leading into the weekend I was expecting really good results,” Lamb said.
“Given the training they’d all been doing and the times they’d been doing and the efforts and consistency they had put in as a group.
“Even with such high expectations, they exceeded my expectations.
“We almost doubled our points score from last year.”
Lamb said the swimmers had “bonded as a group”, which sparked their weekend success.
“They do train more often than other sports. You need to create an environment where they all feel welcome, they all enjoy it and strive to be their best,” he said.
Brittany Berger, 17, was the other top Warrnambool performer at Wangaratta.
Brittany finished with eight medals, including five gold, in the 16-17 years section.
Two of her gold medals came in individual medley races.
Adam Barnes, 17, won a gold and Fraser Harrison, 16, scored a bronze.
Blake Turner, 13, claimed two bronze medals, while Jack Paulka, 23, clinched a silver and bronze in open-age races. Caitlyn Mackay, 16, Xavier Darcy, 20, and Ashleigh Pettigrew, 22, also medalled in the multi-class swimmers with a disability section.
Caitlin won three bronze medals, Darcy won a silver and Pettigrew won a gold and a silver.
Lamb said Meaghan O’Leary smashed her personal best by eight seconds in the 12-13 years 100-metre backstroke, clocking 1.10.99.
About 20 WSC swimmers will contest the Victorian age shortcourse titles, in Melbourne from August 31 to September 2.