By JARROD POTTER
HAILEYBURY Waterlions swimmer Samantha Wilkins pushed the field at the Swimming Australia National Swimming Championships last week in Adelaide, making a pair of finals against the best swimmers in the country.
Wilkins, 18, from Edithvale-Aspendale, finished fifth in the 400-metre individual medley in a time of 4.49.58 – an improvement on the sixth place finish she had at the 2012 championships.
She also made the final of the 200m I/M and finished with a time of 2.16.56 – making consecutive finals in that event at the national level.
Wilkins made the semi-finals of both the 50m backstroke and the 200m backstroke, finishing 13th respectively in each event.
The other Waterlions representative to swim at the championships was Commonwealth Games gold medallist Kelly Stubbins – who finished 13th in the 100m backstroke and 19th in the 50m backstroke.
