Two club records, one of which was a Munster Junior record, at the Munster Short Course Championships

Two club records were broken at the Munster Short Course Championships in Limerick over the weekend of November 12 and 13. 

• Sharon Semchiy set a time of 26.58 when winning the 50m Freestyle and beating her own previous record. 
• Isabel Kidney swam 32.80 to win the 50m Breast stroke and beat her own record. This time also eclipsed the previous Munster Junior record held since 2009 by Olympian Fiona Doyle.

I am sure you join me in offering our congratulations!

SWSC had a very large team of 45 swimmers at this largely Senior meet. The team recorded 144 Personal Best swims (out of 318 swims), many of which were an improvement on times they swam in the recent Eddie Campion Dolphin Open. 

The swimmers won 49 out of 112 individual medals:

Sean Bugler, second in the 200m Freestyle; 

Andrew Feenan, first in the 200m and third in the 50m Breast stroke; 

Anna Feenan, first in the 100m and second in the 200m Freestyle; 

Isabel Kidney, first in the 50m, 100m and 200m Breast stroke, second in the 100m Freestyle and third in the 50m butterfly;  

Ellen Lee, third in the 200m and 400m Freestyle;

Beth Nolan, first in 200m backstroke and 100m Individual Medley, and second in 50m Breast stroke;

Michael O’Driscoll, first in 1500m Freestyle and third in 800m Freestyle;

James Ryan, first in 50m and 100m Backstroke, and third in 50m Butterfly;

Antonina Sech, first in the Junior 400m Freestyle and third in the 100m Backstroke;

Sharon Semchiy, first in the 50m Freestyle, Backstroke and Butterfly, and also first in the 100m Butterfly.

These individual performances, coupled with winning medals in all six relays, three of them gold’s, completed excellent team performances. Next up are the Winter Short course Nationals in Dublin (December 14 to 17) and then the Long Course season.

Tom Cross, Chair. December 2022

In a full return to competition, over 800 swimmers competed in this year’s Summer Nationals. Individual heats were run together then the finals were split by age group (13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 and over for girls; with the same age groups plus an 18 year and 19 and over final for boys. This novel format was designed to give maximum opportunity to compete in finals after the shut-down caused by the pandemic. The only exceptions were the 50s in the form strokes which were run as Open finals (and thus difficult to reach), and some HDW swims in the longer events. Relays were 14 and under and 15 and over, at 400 and 800 FR and 400 MR for females and males with the addition of a 400 mixed MR. It was in the relays where there were particularly impressive SWSC performances.

This year, a record number (32) of SWSC swimmers qualified and 24 competed (12 females and 12 males) ranging in ages from 13 to 21, with many competing at National level for the first time. There were 170 individual swims of which 99 were Personal Bests (PBs), with all team members recording at least one PB. Sixty heat swims resulted in reaching finals, and there were eight gold, four silver and six bronze medallists (detailed results and photographs have already appeared on the website, with results also on Meet Mobile).

Medallists were Sean Bugler-bronze in 16 200 free; Clare Custer-golds in 14 400, 800 and 1500 free and 200 back and fly; Isabel Kidney-bronze in Open 50 breast stoke and silver in 16 100 and bronze in 200 on the same stroke; Asha Mahanta-golds in 14 100 back and fly and silver in 200 back; Beth Nolan-bronze in 18 and over 200 IM; Liam O’Driscoll-bronze in 14 200 fly; Antonina Sech-bronze in 15 200 IM; and Sharon Semchiy-gold in 18 and over 200 free and silvers in 100 and 200 fly.

Both Clare and Asha were competing with SWSC for the first time. Clare, based in the USA is Liam Custer’s sister, while Asha mother Orla competed with both City of Cork and Cork Masters in the past. Two of Clare’s times (400 free and 200 back) qualify her for the National Performance Pathway squad.

Particularly impressive were Isabel’s time coming 3^rd in the Open 50 breast stroke (34.43-a new club record); Sharon’s back end speed in the 200 free and fly after her stint of US training; Andrew Feenan back to his best in the 200 breast stroke, and Aoife Gardner’s  great improvement in the free style events (her entry time for the 13 100 free was 1.11 and she swam 1.06s several times individually and in the relays). In addition there were at least seven fourth places, all in impressive times.

SWSC really shone in the relays. The girls 14 and under team of Clare, Asha, Aoife and Carrie Harrington won all three relays (400 and 800 FR and 400 MR), whereas the Boy’s team in the same age group (Thomas O’Driscoll, Vincent Kopczynski, Dylan Gunn and David O’Leary) won two silvers and a bronze in the same events. Our women’s team of Sharon, Beth, Isabel and Anna Feenan (with the latter persisting despite illness) continued the excellent form they displayed in the Dave McCullagh meet in February, winning the 400 and 800 FRs and coming a narrow second in the 400 MR. Their time in the 400 MR was a new club record. Our Men’s 15 and over relay was largely a young team (Marc Galland, Michael O’Driscoll, Sean and Rory Lee) but they still managed a fourth place in the 800 FR. This is the relay that requires the highest level of endurance and their success here bodes well for the future.

Apart from SWSC successes, there were great performances from Dolphin, Blackrock and Limerick SCs. Hopefully we’re seeing a Munster revival.

Thank you for a great display swimmers, coaches and officials (and of course parents). Onwards and upwads!

Tom Cross

Chair SWSC

Liam Custer after his Irish Junior record breaking victory in the 800m Freestyle  in the 2022 Nationals with (L-R) Richard Cassidy, Head Coach; Iryna Semchiy, Secretary and Tom Cross, Chair

We are delighted that Liam Custer, our outstanding overseas swimmer, has been selected for Irish Junior European (EJC) in Romania in early July and European Long Course (ELC) Championships in Italy in August, via his performances at the Spring Nationals in April. At that meet he won the 400 IM and 800 Freestyle, both in Irish Junior record times, and was second in the 200 Butterfly. (As reported earlier, he also won the 1500 freestyle at the Nationals.)

As club members know, Liam is based in Florida and swims with Sarasota Sharks under coach Brent Arckey. He is finishing High School and has been awarded a scholarship to Stanford University this autumn. His maternal grandfather comes from Carrigaline and his maternal grandmother is also from Cork, and he has opted to swim for Ireland Internationally. (Incidentally his gran uncle Jim Cogan was our water polo goalkeeper in UCC in the late 1960s.)  

Liam joined SWSC several years ago and has travelled over to Irish National competitions in most of the intervening years, where he has performed very successfully. We wish him every success in these events. He is a great inspiration to all our swimmers. 

Liam’s younger sister Clare has recently also joined SWSC and intends to compete in this summer’s Nationals, where she will specialise in the longer events. Their club in Sarasota has a 50m outdoor pool which I visited in 2019. This facility, together with an excellent training programme under coach Arckey, has enabled them to produce the silver medal winner in the Women’s 400 IM in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.  

Our most successful current female swimmer Sharon Semchiy flew to Florida on June 1 to train for three weeks with the Sarasota Sharks. This is a great opportunity for Sharon to improve in her events but will also serve as a prototype for future planned training exchanges between SWSC and Sarasota. We look forward to her talking to the rest of our swimmers on her return.

Tom Cross

SWSC Chairperson