MSQ State Championships 2022 Summary & Results

The 2022 MSQ State Swimming Championships were held in Cairns at the Tobruk Memorial Swimming pool 20-22 May.

After much preparation by many our Cairns clubs, we were pleased to welcome 240 swimmers from throughout Australia to Cairns for a great three days of swimming, fun and friendship.

Cairns Regional Councillor Max O’Halloran and North Queensland Regional Manager Belgravia Leisure Cairns Kendell Thessman joined Ted, Craig, and Cheryl for the opening of the State Championships on the Friday morning.

The first two events on Friday morning were the Male and Female 4 x 25m relays which were great to watch. There was fierce competition between clubs to see who would finish first. Swimming was enjoyed by all with lots of smiles and fun throughout the meet.

The pool was fast with many PBs plus many records being set:

• World records – 4
• National Records – 46
• Queensland State Records – 133
• Victorian State records – 18
• New South Wales Records – 3
• Northern Territory Records – 1

Saturday night was the Gala Evening at the Tobruk Pool. Thank you to Tobruk staff, Jarrod, Brad, Mandy and all her staff for the great decorations, organising the food, and serving the food throughout the night. To Jarod for mixing the Blue Lagoon complementary drinks on arrival and served by Brad. The ten piece band ‘The Marias’ were amazing and kept most dancing all night.

On Sunday we finished with a BBQ and the presentations. Congratulations to all award winners:

• Male Swimmer of the Meet – John Cocks from Malvern Marlins
• Female Swimmer of the Meet – Gillian O’Mara from River City Masters
• Best Swimmer 18-29 years – Kady Ibell from UQ Masters
• Best Swimmer 30-49 years – Todd Robinson from Southport Masters
• Best Swimmer 50-69 years – John McKaig from Townsville Aquaholics
• Best Swimmer 70+ years – John Cocks from Malvern Marlins
• Maria Maina Trophy – Highest Average Points, Small Club – Nudgee College Masters
• Max Gillespie Trophy – Highest Average Points, Large Club – Gympie Gold Fins Masters
• George Corones Trophy – Highest Club Points – Miami Masters
• Jenny Mack Trophy – Highest combined points for the 100m and 200m Breakfast events – Caleb Langelaan from Cotton Tree Masters
• Club Relay Award – Highest Average Club Points in relay events – Miami Masters
• 2021 Coach of the Year – Alessandro Mariani, Rackley Masters
• 2021 Volunteer of the Year – Greg Flanders, Brisbane Southside Masters

Thank you to our major sponsor John Munro, JMS Goggles, for providing the swim caps plus the Male and Female Swimmer of the meet trophies.  John, your support is greatly appreciated.

Thank you also to the following who worked tirelessly over the three days:

• MSQ Officials – John Barrett, Colin Carter, Terry Major, Rob Lucas, Michele Burley-Jones, Heather Butler, Karen Whitworth, Cheryl Brodribb, Liz Alfredson, and Laura Garner
• Recording – Kathy and Deb from the Far North Queensland Junior Swimming Club and David Findlay (MSQ Systems Administrator)
• Meet Director and Check Starter – Ted Bunt (MSQ VP North)
• MC and Sound – Craig Needham
• Chief Timekeeper- Brian Brodribb
• Marshalls – Cairns Clams members

A big thank you to Tobruk pool for all the catering for lunches for officials and non-swimming volunteers (they were gratefully appreciated) also for the Gala Evening on Saturday night and the Sunday BBQ lunch.

To our Far Northern clubs who supported the event over the three days, with raffle prizes and to clean up Sunday, a big thank you.  A great team effort.

Craig had plenty of give aways, thanks to Chemist Warehouse and Zoggs, and kept all amused with questions to win a prize.

Thank you to all for travelling to Cairns for the 2022 MSQ State Short Course Swimming Championships with many travelling considerable distances.  We loved having you in Cairns and hope to see you again for the 2023 GBRMG.

Cheryl and Ted.

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Recording Summary

Planning for this meet commenced in May 2019 which originally was to put together the 2020 version of this meet. COVID-19 came along and the meet in Cairns was postponed two years. The Meet Designers consisted of MSQ Director Recording – Martin Banks and MSQ Administrator – Christina Scolaro, in conjunction with our Swim Meet Committee – Emma Maxwell, Gillian O’Mara, Tracy Clarkson, and John McKaig.

We had another State Championships in between on the Sunshine Coast in 2021 which gave us a chance to learn. We had run with a non-AOE timing system which received plenty of feedback. Self-marshaling was attempted which mostly succeeded but could use some work, and a restriction of six individual events per person was imposed. We had started the meet with the 50m Freestyle to get more people at the pool for an exciting start. For the first time in my ten years of swimming at Masters State Championships, the atmosphere was exciting right from warm-up and the opening of the meet and Heat 1 was fast and full of energy.

For 2022 we wanted to build on the successes and lessons learnt. With one of the best pools in Australia offering a short course configuration we were very excited at the opportunities that lay before us in Cairns. Much thought was put into the program specified for 2022 with the objective to improve it and provide opportunity for records to be broken. We have always looked to provide an efficient and well spread out meet program, provide regular changes to the order of events to ensure we are not favouring any one group of swimmers each year, and also include points of difference to what other states are doing at their meets. We are still the only state to offer a comprehensive Meet Guide and Program, Entry List, Timeline and Statistical Results Analysis providing our teams, entrants and spectators all the support information they will need.

We were once again able to offer up to nine individual events per entrant. We switched a few events around, changed the usual 4x50m relays to the 4x25m relays, and added a 4x100m Women’s and Men’s relay. These are all relay events rarely included at a State or National level meet of this size. The Men’s and Women’s 4x25m Freestyle relays were placed at the beginning of the meet to once again get more people to the venue for the opening, and get racing started in an exciting way. 15 records fell in the first six heats of the meet with six of those being Australian – that is how we start a meet in Queensland! Across the entire meet we saw an incredible 205 records broken from all across the country, including 46 Australian and four World Records.

With more than 240 entrants from 44 clubs, it was the largest non-SE Queensland State Championships recorded. We saw the highest number of swimmers in the youngest two age groups as well as an ex international swimmer or two choosing to compete, plus our highest number of interstate entrants (19 from 9 clubs) including world record holders. We are still the only State to offer all 400m events separated out into each stroke at our Championships. The combination of good programming, clear and consistent announcing and the appropriate level of marshaling/check starting, produced a high quality meet, with plenty of positive feedback received and impressive results. This has raised the bar, laying down the next challenge to improve in 2023; our Long Course Championships at Mackay. We will continue to strive to offer the best championships meet in the country.

For all MSQ State Championships 2022 Meet results, click here.

Martin Banks, Director Recording.

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Club Awards

George Corones Trophy – Highest Club Points – Congratulations to Miami Masters.

Club Total Points – Top 5			Athletes	Entries	Relays	Total Meet Pts
1	QMM	Miami Masters	25	184	23	1888
2	QUQ	University of Queensland Masters	17	146	15	1598
3	QCS	Cairns Clams Masters	22	158	18	1285
4	QNA	Noosa Masters	18	146	14	1266
5	QCD	Belgravia Masters Team	10	86	8	693

        

 

Max Gillespie Trophy – Highest Average Points, Large Club – Congratulations to Gympie Gold Fins Masters.

Club Average Points – Large Clubs – Top 5			Athletes	Entries	Relays	Total Meet Pts	Total Relay Pts	Average Pts
1	QGF	Gympie Gold Fins Masters	6	54	5	625	100	104.17
2	QUQ	University of Queensland Masters	17	146	15	1598	284	94.00
3	QMM	Miami Masters	25	184	23	1888	421	75.52
4	QSC	Sunshine Coast Masters	6	49	5	430	66	71.67
5	QNA	Noosa Masters	18	146	14	1266	234	70.33

 

 

Maria Maina Trophy – Highest Average Points, Small Club – Congratulations to Nudgee College Masters.

Club Average Points – Small Clubs – Top 5			Athletes	Entries	Relays	Total Meet Pts	Average Pts
1	QNB	Nudgee College Masters	2	18	0	144	72.00
2	QIP	Ipswich City Masters	2	18	0	120	60.00
3	QMF	Mossman Meteors Masters	4	36	0	216	54.00
4	VCS	Casey Seals	2	16	0	105	52.50
5	CDW	Darwin Stingers Masters	2	16	0	97	48.50

  

Club Relay Award – Highest Average Club Points in relay events – Congratulations to Miami Masters.

Relay Award – Top 5			Athletes	Relays	Total Relay Pts	Average Relay Pts
1	QMM	Miami Masters	25	23	421	16.84
2	QUQ	University of Queensland Masters	17	15	284	16.71
3	QGF	Gympie Gold Fins Masters	6	5	100	16.67
4	QNA	Noosa Masters	18	14	234	13.00
5	QBM	Bunna-barra Masters	10	9	128	12.80

 

 

Regional Points:

	MSQ Region	Total Points	Athlete Count	Athlete Average	Club Count	Club Average
1	Sunshine	5650	73	77.40	11	513.64
2	South	4105	62	66.21	10	410.50
3	North	3746	66	56.76	8	468.25
4	Central	776	16	48.50	5	155.20

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Individual Awards

Male Swimmer of the Meet – Congratulations to John Cocks from Malvern Marlins.

Male Swimmer of the Meet – Top 5			Club	Age	Points
1	John Cocks	M	VMV	85-89	4629
2	Todd Robinson	M	QPB	45-49	4042
3	Stephen Berting	M	QUQ	40-44	3961
4	John McKaig	M	QTA	50-54	3885
5	Caleb Langelaan	M	QCT	45-49	3876

 

 

Female Swimmer of the Meet – Congratulations to Gillian O’Mara from River City Masters.

Female Swimmer Of The Meet – Top 5			Club	Age	Points
1	Gillian O’Mara	F	QRC	45-49	4030
2	Kady Ibell	F	QUQ	25-29	3911
3	Nola Macaulay	F	QUQ	50-54	3879
4	Kim McKeon	F	QUQ	60-64	3691
5	Christina Scolaro	F	QUQ	50-54	3339

 

 

Best Swimmer 18-29 years – Congratulations to Kady Ibell from UQ Masters.

Best  Swimmer 18-29 years – Top 5			Club	Age	Points
1	Kady Ibell	F	QUQ	25-29	3911
2	Rhys Bailey	M	QGF	18-24	3370
3	Declan Eskdale	M	QGF	25-29	3252
4	Rick Van Der Zant	M	QTA	18-24	2906
5	Catherine Prince	F	QGF	25-29	2881

 

 

Best Swimmer 30-49 years – Congratulations to Todd Robinson from Southport Masters.

Best Swimmer 30-49 years – Top 5			Club	Age	Points
1	Todd Robinson	M	QPB	45-49	4042
2	Gillian O’Mara	F	QRC	45-49	4030
3	Stephen Berting	M	QUQ	40-44	3961
4	Caleb Langelaan	M	QCT	45-49	3876
5	Andrew Cowan	M	QGF	30-34	3650

 

 

Best Swimmer 50-69 years – Congratulations to John McKaig from Townsville Aquaholics.

Best Swimmer 50-69 years – Top 5			Club	Age	Points
1	John McKaig	M	QTA	50-54	3885
2	Nola Macaulay	F	QUQ	50-54	3879
3	Kim McKeon	F	QUQ	60-64	3691
4	Christina Scolaro	F	QUQ	50-54	3339
5	Martin Banks	M	QUQ	50-54	3259

 

 

Best Swimmer 70+ years – Congratulations to John Cocks from Malvern Marlins.

Best Swimmer 70+ years – Top 5			Club	Age	Points
1	John Cocks	M	VMV	85-89	4629
2	Paul Wyatt	M	NCR	75-79	3820
3	Denise Robertson	F	QMM	85-89	3254
4	Marijke Alderson	F	VPP	75-79	3116
5	Narelle Phillips	F	QCD	75-79	2971

 

 

Jenny Mack Trophy – Highest combined points for the 100m and 200m Breaststroke events – Congratulations to Caleb Langelaan from Cotton Tree Masters.

Jenny Mack Trophy – Top 5			Club	Age	Points
1	Caleb Langelaan	M	QCT	45-49	1655
2	Paul Wyatt	M	NCR	75-79	1626
3	Kathryn Gill	F	QRC	35-39	1470
4	Christina Scolaro	F	QUQ	50-54	1412
5	Greg Chaplin	M	VCS	60-64	1366

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Action shots

Laughter & Fun

Saturday Night Carnivale Fun

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