Tamworth City Swimming Club president Narelle Burke has been involved with the club for over 20 years and she's never seen such a large group qualify for the Senior State Age Championships.
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"I've been in the club since the 90s and this is the most we've had go to state in any of those years," she said of the 2020 squad.
"It's not easy to qualify. The qualifying times change when the kids go up a year so the times are something they're always chasing.
"It's been excellent to get so many of the swimmers qualify for the state championships particularly with all the problems we've had with covid and limited training through winter."
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A group of 14 Tamworth City swimmers will compete at the championships at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre from December 12-17.
The club also qualified for nine relays - another incredible achievement, Burke said.
"We've got a lot of depth there," the president said.
"Some of these kids are 0.3 [of a second] off a qualifying time.
"By sending them to state and doing the relays, it really helps keep them motivated to keep going because it's terribly disappointing when you're just 0.3 or 0.5 off a qualifying time."
The squad, led by coach Nicholas Monet - who Burke said was "doing a marvellous job" - will travel to, and stay in, Sydney as a group.
Burke said it was to develop the team dynamic.
"That's really important to us," she said.
"Even though their individual swimmers, they're still part of a team and we try to foster that very much so.
"The whole lot go away together, they stay together, the coach goes with them. It's a really good set up for the kids to do their best times."
The team that will go away consists of Ella Fittler, Caine Ford, Eliza Griffiths, Cooper Hall, Alex Hayes, Grace Milgate, Achille Monet, Augustin Monet, Clementine Monet, James Ryan, Marcus Ryan, Amelia Simm, Tilani Smith and Connor Wise.
Ben Jaffrey
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
