A TRIO of top Coffs Harbour swimmers have come away with medals at last weekend’s North Coast Championships in Evans Head.

Mitchell Hickey, Cale Ogilvy, and Layci Teale attended the Championships and they put together some incredible swims, as the short course season kicked off.

Hickey took out Distance Champion, winning the 400m, 800m and 1500m Freestyle events.

He swam personal bests across all 3 distance events, the biggest being a 20 second personal best in his 1500m freestyle.

He has now qualified for State in the open age category for both the 800m and 1500m events.

He was exceptional in the freestyle, his backstroke has continued to improve and he took out gold in both the 100m and 200m backstroke events.

Layci Teale took out the 12 years Girls Age Champion walking away with six Gold, three Silver, one Bronze medal and set a new record in the 12 years Girls 200m backstroke.

Teale was exceptional over the weekend, competing in ten individual events and earning ten medals.

Teammate Cale Ogilvy swam well, earning Bronze in the 15 years 100m backstroke.

He has now qualified for his second Country Championships that he’ll compete in in just a couple of weeks.

The local area championships have not been the only meet these guys have competed in over recent weeks.

Bella Teale also recently attended the Swimming NSW Qualifying Meet in Sydney.

This was her first hit out since her incredible National Age Championships back in April.

Back in the water after a break, and just three weeks in the training pool saw her qualify for her first Australian Open National Short Course Championships.

The young group of swimmers’ coach, Sarah-Jane Weir, said the results were exceptional.

“These results over recent weekends are amazing, and I’m just so incredibly proud,” she said.

“It takes a special sort of athlete to be able to be coached remotely.

“Their drive and commitment is unparalleled, and this is why they continue to achieve.

“They continue to train in a 20m learn to swim pool, which makes these results even more exceptional.”

The proud coach also praised the efforts of Bella Teale to qualify for the Australian Open National Short Course Championships.

“It’s an absolutely incredible achievement for a fifteen-year-old girl to qualify, competing against the best athletes in the country in an open age category is just incredible,” she said.

“Many swimmers will chase qualification to compete in their age at this level, to qualify to compete at an open level shows her amazing talent.”

By Aiden BURGESS