Metro North Scratch Meet 2006
The Metro North Scratch Meet was held at the Richmond Recreation Centre over two consecutive Saturday nights on the 18th and 25th of November 2006. Once again the Collingwood Swimming Club was well represented at this district swim meet and many of our swimmers swam personal best times. Xenia De Cata, Tilly Tonkovic and Lily Potocnik set five new club records. Congratulations to everyone who competed at this event and thank you to the parents who helped with time keeping.

Spring interclub 2006
By Lily Potocnik

Friday the 3rd of November was the final night of spring interclub for 2006. It was the last of 5 consecutive Friday nights of competition, and included the presentation of pennants to the top two teams for each grade. Collingwood Swimming club had entered 8 teams, 5 junior and 3 senior and the final places for the Collingwood teams are;

Collingwood senior 1 came 1st
Collingwood senior 2 came 2nd (runners up)
Collingwood senior 3 came 3rd
Collingwood junior 1 came 1st
Collingwood junior 2 came 3rd
Collingwood junior 3 came 5th
Collingwood junior 4 came 1st and
Collingwood junior 5 came 3rd

The competition wouldn’t have been as successful as it was without the organization of our head coach Tony, our development coach Laura, Jeff Richardson, our 8 team managers and the parents who volunteered to time keep each week. Thanks also to Tony for driving the bus.

State Age Short Course Championships
Congratulations to Nick Rickard and Lily Potocnik who swam in the Victorian Age Short Course Championships in September at MSAC. Their results were outstanding and Lily set two new club records.

Nick:
 50m   freestyle  44th  28.83
100m  freestyle  40th  1:03.07

Lily:
100m backstroke  24th 1:15.64
200m backstroke 17th  2:44.20

Metro North Championships 2006
The Metro North Championships were held on the 8th of October at MSAC and the Collingwood Swimming Club was well represented. Many of our swimmers posted personal best times and eighteen new club records were established. Congratulations to everyone who competed at this event. See records page.

C grade Aggregate 2006
By Lily Potocnik
This year’s aggregate was held on Sunday nights the 9th of July, the 6th of August and 15th of October. Collingwood swimming club had one of the biggest turnouts. We entered two teams in the competition and were able to swim full teams over all three nights, which was a great achievement for our club.
Many thanks to our coach Tony, our overall manager Simone, to each of the four team managers and all the parents who volunteered to time keep each night and help out. Without these people, we would not have been able to compete at Aggregate this year. 

Winter Interclub
The Winter Interclub Pennant Competition was held over five consecutive Friday evenings from the 7th of July to the 4th of August at MSAC. Collingwood Swimming Club entered seven teams in the competition; four junior teams and three senior teams. Well done to everyone who made the epic journey across town each Friday night to swim for Collingwood and congratulations to the Collingwood Senior I team who won the B Grade Pennant. Once again there was a wonderful team spirit among the Collingwood team and everyone enjoyed the social aspect of the event as well as the swimming.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to getting our teams to the venue and in the water. Thank you to all the team managers for an excellent job, to Tony and Leeanne Whitfield for driving the bus, to our time keepers and a huge thank you to Tony for organising the teams each week and to Tony and Joseph for coaching.

District Aggregate
District Aggregate is held over three evenings at the Carey Aquatic Centre. Collingwood Swimming Club has entered two teams in the C Grade competition. Two of the three nights of competition have been swum and both Collingwood teams are doing well. Once again we have a dedicated group of parents acting as team managers and Tony is doing a great job organising the teams.

Collingwood swimmers competing at State Championships
Lily Potocnik and Nick Rickard will be competing at the 2006 Victorian Age Short Course Championships at MSAC on the 3rd, 9th and 10th of September. Lily and Nick have qualified to swim in two events each, Lily in the 100m and 200m backstroke and Nick in the 50m and 100m freestyle, after swimming qualifying times at the Surrey Park and Eltham Swim Club Short Course meets. Lily has also set a new club record for the 100m backstroke, with a time of 1:18.21. Congratulations Lily and Nick and good luck.   

Early Season Achievers
It is early in the season but already club records are tumbling as our swimmers improve their performances. Congratulations to everybody who set new club records at the Metro North Short Course Time Trials, which were held on the 3rd of June at Carey Aquatic Centre.

On the 9th of July, two of our swimmers competed at the Surrey Park Swimming Club Short Course Meet at MSAC. Congratulations to Nick Rickard and Lily Potocnik who both swam State Short Course Qualifying times, Nick in the 50m freestyle and Lily in the 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke. Lily’s times were also new club records.

Club Championships
Our club championships were held in conjunction with Northcote Swim Club on the 29th of April at Richmond pool and were a huge success. The night ran smoothly and the atmosphere was terrific. Our collaboration with the Northcote Swim Club was very positive and both clubs are keen to get together for other joint events in the future.

A great big THANK YOU to everyone who was involved in organising this event and helping on the night. Special thanks to Tony and the La Posta family for decorating the stands and providing face paint for our swimmer and supporters. Special thanks also to Di Bayliss, Rae Bambara and Terry Lewis, the Metro North officials who gave up their time to manage the swim meet software, start the races and referee for us. Without them, we would not have been able to run such a well-organised event.

All the swimmers from Collingwood Swimming Club were excellent. Everyone swam their best and cheered on their friends and helped out where they could. It was a great effort. Many swam PBs and some new club records were established.

Metro North 2006 All Junior Eliminations
The Collingwood Swimming Club and the Collingwood Leisure Centre Swimming Program were very well represented at the All Junior Eliminations, which were held at the Richmond Aquatic Centre on the 11th and18th of February. Congratulations to coach Tony who encouraged a very large number of swimmers to come along and swim in this event. It was a real carnival atmosphere in the stand with the team from Collingwood.

All our swimmers competed to the very best of their ability and they achieved fantastic results with many new personal best times being set. For many swimmers from the learn-to-swim and squad programs, this was a first taste of competition swimming and everyone responded to the challenge. Our swimmers were also extremely well behaved in the crowd and the marshalling area.

All results are available on www.vicnet.net.au/~metronth