With the largest team of 11 to attend this tough qualifying meet, Coach Leigh-Anne Pokarier was already very proud of her young prodigies. The week is huge, with early mornings and late-night finals. Being present for the week in its entirety is the absolute challenge; nutrition, sleep, illness—everything can enter the domain the week of or prior, and nothing can be left for granted. How we all roll through it and prepare for each race is a process, as any athlete will vouch, and our entire team handled it all with perfection.
When coaches you have the utmost respect for come up to you and congratulate you on your swimmers, and parents pass by acknowledging your team and team culture, well, that's about as good as it gets. Then, you witness your athletes achieving their goals, mixing with visiting teams, exchanging caps, and making lifelong friends—well, that is emotional. I was absolutely so very proud of everyone's results. There is a lot of work required and many not-so-fun things that can hinder the week, as I said above, but can I please highlight our debutants, Dakota Daniel and Tamika Ness, both 12, who knocked it out of the ballpark, to say the least.
Normally, it can become a bit of a "deer in the headlights" scenario for the first-timers, but not this crew—they were switched on and ready to go! Dakota Daniel, 12, competed in nine events, kicking off her week with a bronze medal representing Swimming North Qld in the relay with other Cyclone swimmers also competing on relay day. From then on, it was just pure grit and fight in every race by this young lady as we went into individual events. Not only did Dakota smash her PBs, but she earned herself three silver medals, one bronze, two additional finals, and four more national qualifying swims to add to her debut of six individual events to compete in her very first Australian Age Championships in April this year. A massive effort and achievement, with qualifying times in the 100, 200, and 400 Freestyle, as well as the 200 and 400 Individual Medley.
Our other first-timer at this meet was Tamika Ness, also 12, who swam 11 events, smashing 10 out of 11 PBs and charging into two finals, placing 5th in QLD for the 50 Breaststroke and 7th in the 100 Breaststroke. Tamika also achieved a national QT but is still too young to attend, as her birthday falls outside of the cut-off.
Other results saw Maverick Curtis, 13, pop his head in for a first-time swim, narrowly missing out on others, with a 50 Free and a PB, along with the experience of a lifetime and a grin from ear to ear. Ava Kearns, 14, swam seven events, again achieving PBs for six and securing three national qualifying times for her 100 Fly, 50 Back, and 50 Free, taking her to four events for Nationals 2025.
Vaughn Wyatt, 16, swam a great heat, earning a spot in the final and coming 10th in QLD for his 200 Breaststroke. Ehsan Helou, also 16, made the final in his pet event, the 50 Breaststroke, earning himself 5th spot in QLD and again coming close to adding more to his national events. Ehsan has also qualified for the Australian Opens for his 50 Breaststroke.
Our 200 Breaststroke girls, Audrey Bryan, 15, and Ariah Corrigan, 13, both swam their races beautifully, with PBs and enjoying the process of how to race it. Lastly, Anisa Helou, 15, smashed out her races with some PBs and edged very close to achieving more national qualifying times for herself, along with Jarek Taylor and Zanthia Noon, 17, continuing their work in achieving their goals.
What's next? A massive four months with many carnivals, another state sprint meet, school competitions, and Australian Age and Open Championships. Then we can all have a break.
Photos supplied
Contributed by Alisha Ness – Mackay Cyclones Club Member
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