71 per cent a personal best

By Marc McGowan
PRIDE. Haileybury Waterlions coach Wayne Lawes needed only one word to sum up his feelings about his swimmers’ performance at last week’s Victorian Age Championships.
The Waterlions finished in third place overall with an outstanding haul of 10 gold, 18 silver and nine bronze medals.
Fourteen-year-old prodigy Sam Wilkins led the charge with five gold and four silver medals and an age champion award to boot.
But possibly the most impressive aspect of Haileybury’s success was its swimmers’ astonishing personal-best rate of 71 per cent.
Lawes, not surprisingly, was a satisfied man after the state meet.
“Collectively over the five days they really did a great job,” he said. “The guys really stood up. We didn’t taper and we’re still working really hard. I’m pretty pleased and I’m looking forward to getting these guys ready for nationals now.”
The other individual female medallists were 13-year-old Briony Johnson (silver and bronze), 14-year-old Jennifer Veres (bronze), 15-year-old Emily Moreton (bronze) and 17-year-old Ally Woodlock (one gold, four silver and a bronze).
Individual male medallists were 14-year-old Tyson Lawes (bronze), 16-year-old Indra Grant (one goldand three silver) and 18-year-old Roy Pearce (one gold, two silver and two bronze).
The Waterlions also dominated in the relays; collecting two gold, four silver and two bronze medals.
Fifteen-year-old Nicole Clements and 14-year-old Stephanie Campbell – who has suffered from knee, elbow and back injuries over the past year – won their first medals at state level.
Lawes said he would love to knock off the top two clubs, Nunawading and Melbourne Vicentre, in the future, but that he measured his swimmers’ success in other ways.
“It’s a numbers game and you just have to do what you can deal with and, as a group collectively, that’s how I evaluate them,” he said. “I also evaluate our performance, not by my most-talented athletes, but on my less-talented ones. It’s about the kids who haven’t got that natural talent and how they get up – that’s another great measure for myself and my coaching staff.
“We’re trying to create an environment where we can raise these kids to excellence.”
The Victorian Open Championships start tomorrow (Friday) and run until Sunday.