All three Ballarat clubs were well represented with 20 entered from Ballarat GCO Swimming Club, 25 from Ballarat Gold Swimming Club and 15 from Ballarat Swimming Club.

There were 60 Ballarat swimmers in total – four more than last year – with qualifying times applied for the event. 

The district bagged 13 medals, three gold, five silver and five bronze across the weekend.

The surprise swim was Lucas Kent in the 14-15 year boys 200 freestyle, which saw him ranked seventh and swimming in the outside lane.

Kent went out hard from the beginning of the race and in touch throughout with the favourites. He held on to touch second in a personal best time of two minutes 05.58 seconds – an improvement of 4.32 seconds.

Another highlight of the weekend was the boys 14-15 year 100 breaststroke event, which saw three district boys Ben Grima, Kent and Jonas Paar, again seeded in the fastest heat of this event.

Having come first, second and third respectively last year, a similar scenario unfolded.

It was a nail-biting finish with Paar recording a personal best time of 1:09.96 (-1.62) just touched out of first placing by Aidan Bell from Taralgon (1:09.47). 

Grima finished third in a time of 1:11.94, which was an improvement of 4.00 seconds on his entry time. Kent came in sixth placing.

Grima was the district’s best performer with four medals overall and five finishes in the top six.

Ballarat was announced to be hosting the event in 2019 and 2020.