Whanganui swimmer Lucy Somerville excels at Div 2 Nationals

Whanganui Swim Team 14-year-old Lucy Somerville pushed the boundaries at the NZ Division 2 Championships in Dunedin.

Fourteen-year-old Lucy Somerville was the only member of the Toyota Whanganui Swim Team to make the long trek to Dunedin to contest the New Zealand Division 2 competition, and she came back with a full set of medals in the backstroke events and another bronze in the 50-metre freestyle.

Just as importantly, Somerville picked up a valuable qualifying time for the NZ age group champs (NAGS) next month in Wellington and can now join a team of eight swimmers set to contest the premier event of their season.

Somerville made her intentions clear in her first race of the meet, the 200m backstroke heat, by smashing her personal best by 7.23 seconds and posting the third fastest time in her age group and putting herself in a serious position to qualify for NAGS in the final.
She kept her form up throughout the session posting PBs and also qualifying for the finals of the 50m Butterfly and the 100m Individual Medley (IM).

In the evening (finals) session she showed that the morning was no fluke stripping another second off her 200m backstroke to win her first medal, a bronze, and go an agonisingly close 0.3 seconds to achieving her goal of qualification. PBs in the other two finals placed her 5th in the 50m Butterfly and 6th in the 100m IM.

Day two started with her favoured 100m backstroke and another agonisingly close time to NAGS qualification with another PB and being the second fastest qualifier. That evening in the final she was not going to be denied swimming a very slick 1.10.26 to not only qualify for NAGS, but earn a hard fought silver medal.

The swim was over 2.5 seconds faster than she had swum before the meet and showed that she was more than capable of rising to the big occasion.

With the added bonus of Highlander's rugby players handing out the medals on the Friday (Day 3) session, Somerville set herself a clear goal of again making the podium and although her heat swim was not a PB she still qualified second giving her one of the favoured middle lanes in the final. Come final time she pulled out another outstanding swim holding on to top the podium winning the gold medal in a time of 31.92.

Having achieved a full set (gold, silver and bronze) of Swimming NZ medals, Somerville could have almost been forgiven for relaxing on the last night which is traditionally a fancy dress night, where the coaches, officials and swimmers are encouraged to dress to a theme and really let their hair down.

After qualifying fifth in the heats session, she once again went faster in the finals session to again PB and claim her second bronze medal in a time of 29.37.

Overall it was an outstanding and rewarding meet for Somerville and the Whanganui Swim team. Her qualification for NAGS means she will travel to Wellington with Georgia Abraham and Jack Robertson (13), Ethan Bryers, Cayden Earles and Cheyenne Nightingale (14), Amelia Cronin (16) and Katie Kerins (17) in the first week of the school holidays in April.