Geraldton swimmers smash PBs and deliver strong team showing during long weekend’s Country Pennants tournament

A crew of Geraldton’s young swimming talent made a splash in last weekend’s Country Pennants in Karratha, bringing home a healthy haul of medals across two days of action. Unlike other meets, the Country Pennants focuses on team performance and overall depth within regional swimming teams, with swimmers earning points for their club across several events. Geraldton Amateur Swimming Club sent 27 swimmers who raced across 20 relays and 79 individual swims, with 26 personal best times achieved. Overall, GASC finished with 21 gold, 22 silver and 53 bronze medals, lifting Geraldton to a third place finish in the A-grade Pennant, finishing just four points behind Peel. Mandurah took first place. GASC secretary Anna Kosch said the club’s swimmers did an amazing job in challenging conditions. “We are very proud of some of our younger swimmers who stepped up to compete outside of their age group and in some cases in a stroke that they have not raced in before,” she said. Alex Travasso recorded four personal bests across the weekend, the highest number of PBs across two days, and was awarded three top six certificates for swimming one of the fastest overall times in an event across all five grades. Several other swimmers had significant time improvements and earned top six certificates. Lyla Evans took a whopping 10.32sec off her 100m butterfly time while Caitlyn Naisbitt and Chloe Wilson also shaved time from in their respective breaststroke events. Molly Evans, Alexa Brown and Bodhi Smith all earned top six certificates, taking Geraldton to six certificates earned overall. The 100m freestyle Dash for Cash event was taken out by Reece Mason. The Country Pennants return to the Mid West in 2027, as Geraldton prepares to welcome about 30 regional WA swim clubs.