Golden glow to State titles

Published 6:00am 19 December 2023

Words by Nick Crockford

Pictured: Grace coach Josh Duyzer with Macey Lawler, left and Lily Smith at the Queensland Championships.

Grace swimmers were celebrating at last week’s Queensland Championships with medals, national qualifying times and personal bests.

Lily Smith was in golden form, returning as state champion after winning the 18 Years 100m backstroke in a personal best (pb) time of 1 minute 6.15 seconds.

She also had pbs winning silver medals in the 200m backstroke with 2:26.33 minutes and 50m backstroke in 30.52 seconds.

Smith was out of the medals in the 50m freestyle but had another pb 27.46 seconds. All were national qualifying times.

Lily Smith who won three medals at the State titles

Lachlan Farrow won two bronze medals in the 12 Years multi-class category with pbs, for the Rothwell-based club.

He stopped the clock at 38 seconds exactly when third in the 50m freestyle and repeated the feat in the 100m freestyle with a time of 1:24.74.

Grace team-mate Macey Lawler won a silver medal as part of the Brisbane Regional team in the 14 years girls freestyle relays.

Representing Grace, she was 16^th in a pb and national qualifying time of 1:01.68 in the 100m freestyle and 13^th in the 100m backstroke also with a national qualifying 1:09.80.

Lachlan Farlow who came home from the State titles with two medals.

Lawler was 12^th in the 50m backstroke which was a swim-off for second reserve for the final nationals qualifying time with a pb of 31.72 seconds.

In a busy schedule, she was also 17^th in the 200m backstroke, 35^th in the 50m freestyle and 40^th in the 50m butterfly with a pb of 37.57 seconds.

Lauren Dymond had a pb and first national qualifying time of 29.23 seconds in the 50m butterfly.

Macey Lawler with her silver medal with the Brisbane Regional team

In all, there were 25 pbs from Grace’s team of 26 swimmers at Brisbane Aquatic Centre for individual and relay events.

Samuel Baker, Samantha Brown, Hayden Dymond, Lauren Dymond, Hayden Farlow, Lachlan Farlow, Soha Foroush, Macey Lawler, Joshua Mandryk, , Alexander McRae, Blade Miller, Alia Shaw, Lily Smith and Sheldon Vas-Diass were in individual events.

Savanna Allen, Abbey Clarke, Cayleigh Graham, Mia Hagen, Leo Lawler, Maddison Mawhinney, Lachlan Miller, Andrew Park, Freya Shaw, Jack Rattenbury, Chloe Schwartz, and Chloe Whiddett were in relays.