Kootingal-Moonbi Swimming Club scored wins in and out of the water when it held its annual carnival on Sunday.
Around 180 swimmers took to the water, including a record 74 Kooty members.
The club also received a $5,000 grant from the state government through the Local Sport Grant Program.
Kootingal co-coach Greg Poetschka said the money would be used to help subsidise the cost of hiring a bus to travel away to carnivals and purchase portable marquees to provide shade for the swimmers when they compete at other carnivals.
“This year in May we went to Orange, and then in July we went to Kurri Kurri.
“We’ll plan for another couple of those,” he said.
He said taking a bus gives the kids the chance to go away as a group.
Numbers for Sunday’s carnival were on par with previous years with nearly 1200 entries and swimmers travelling from Moree, Narrabri, Coonabarabran, Glen Innes, Inverell, Armidale, Scone and Muswellbrook.
Poetschka and fellow coach Graham Johnstone were delighted with how their charges performed.
“We had a lot of kids that it was their first carnival,” Poetschka said
“We were extremely impressed. There were a huge amount of pbs (personal bests) and really big pbs.”
Kootingal swimmers also qualified in four of the six Dash for Cash races with five finishing in the top three, and Will Walsh going on to win the 10&U boys.
The other Dash for Cash winners were: Tilani Smith (Scully Park), Harrison Bennett (Narrabri), Evelia Lantz (Tamworth City) , Maddison Coombs (Gunnedah) and Brinez Lantz (Tamworth City).
The club has again enjoyed a spike in members with approximately 120 registered swimmers this season.
Drawing record numbers to training and club nights, averaging 80 a week, Johnstone reported that the coaches have had to change training schedules to cater for the huge influx of new members.
