<-- Posted Monday, 11th April, 2005, 21:00 GMT -->
Club clean up at Clubs & Societies Awards '05
L-R: Niamh Mc Donnell, Tomas Bacon, Fintan Lillis, Margaret Farrell, Brendan Clerkin, Damian Connolly
What a night it was for the ever growing, ever improving Swimming & Waterpolo Club in Clontarf Castle on Thursday last. No-one really remembers when the club last won something at these prestigious awards, but damn did we do it in style this time round.
Two individual awards came our way, the first for Fintan Lillis for Best Administrator, and the second was bestowed upon our dedicated coach Margaret Farrell. Fintan's award was in recognition of his hard work in the club over the past few years, while Margaret was awarded for an amazing 20 years of service to the club. Both were well deserved and the club congratulate them on this achievement.
The third award for the club was given for Best Sporting event in organising the highly successful Oxford/London vs Dublin Universities gala in the NAC last December. This award was well deserved for a fantastically organised event and beat off some strong oppostion.
Overall the Swimming & Waterpolo Club was the number 1 most successful club or society on the night, with the biggest haul of awards going to us. A big pat on the back for everyone involved, and long may it continue!
More photos here.
<-- Posted Monday, 21st February, 2005, 10:00 GMT -->
3 DCU swimmers to represent Ireland
L-R: Kevin Stacey, Niamh Mc Donnell, Fintan Lillis
Following the success of the Swimming & Waterpolo Club at this year's Swimming Intervarsity Championships, three of the club's members have been selected to represent their country in this year's Celtic Nations event. This competition represents the best talents from the Scottish, Welsh and Irish Universities, competing against each other in both swimming and waterpolo, and will be held in Galway on April 16th.
The team was selected from those who swam at this year's varsities in Sligo and includes Niamh Mc Donnell, Kevin Stacey and Fintan Lillis, as well as others from different 3 rd level institutions around the country.
Niamh was the star of the show for DCU in at the varsities, winning both of her events and will now represent the Irish team in both the 100 backcrawl and the 100 butterfly. Niamh is a dedicated and talented swimmer and still a fresher, so we are expecting some great things from her in the years to come!
Kevin steamed through his final to win the men's 200 IM by a hugely impressive margin in Sligo and hopes to do more of the same in Galway this April. Not only is Kevin a talented swimmer, but is actively involved in the university swimming scene - taking position as Vice-Chair on next year's IUSWA (Irish University Swimming and Waterpolo Association) committee.
Passing down the baton of IUSWA committee membership from this year to Kevin is Fintan Lillis, who will also represent the Irish in Galway. This DCU swimmer was involved in one of the closest fought races of the varsity weekend and now stands as a member of the Irish men's 4X50 Freestyle relay.
Good luck to all three, may they represent the club well!
<-- Posted Monday, 14th February, 2005, 10:00 GMT -->
New Training Times:
With the new pool finally open, our training times have been rescheduled and are now as follows: Monday 8- 9:30 am, Wednesday 2- 3 pm, Friday 2:30- 3:30pm. Sunday 6:30- 7:30 will be used as a lifesaving session- details to follow. We are not being allowed to use our own campus pool for Waterpolo, and are now left in the ridiculous situation of being paid to go elsewhere. NAC closure is making that job difficult too, but we'll keep you informed.
Pool Intervarsities 2005
Sligo IT played host to the 2005 Intervarsity Pool Championships on Friday and Saturday the 11 th and 12 th of February, and DCU were there alive and kicking for the weekend. Brendy's big red fun bus picked us up bright and early on Friday (it wasn't particularly big or red and no - it didn't belong to Brendy), and dropped us in the lovely rainy mucky Sligo for the weekend's festivities. Teams and individuals alike put in some superb performances to assure themselves places in the following day's finals. Kevin Stacey, Niamh Mc Donnell and Fintan Lillis were among DCU's leading performers, along with the men's medley relay team (albeit in slightly dubious circumstances!).
Brendy, Timbo, Jenny, Vatsky and Brusky were the first to the bar that night, and the drinks promos and far too much dancing assured that it was an eventful night's fun for the 172 competitors, who were all evidently very concerned about the next day's competition.
Aching heads made balancing on the blocks for the finals quite a chore on day 2. Nonetheless, the DCU team managed a fine medal haul with an impressive 5 medals. Niamh and Kevin both performed excellently, Niamh medaling twice and Kevin winning the 200 IM by a healthy margin. Fintan's hangover may have even had a positive effect on his swimming when he won bronze in the close-fought 50 freestyle. Timbo, Jonathan, Vatsky and Kev also swam well to win a bronze in the medley relay.
Next up was the lifesaving competition and the team performed well in a discipline that is a little unfamiliar to most in the club. Rope throwing, manikin towing and all sorts of other completely mental stuff was performed and the team finished a respectable 5 th overall.
The final evening formal dinner was a welcome event which has been re-introduced to the varsities after a long absence. Even with this year's reminder of how such a night goes, it still remains a hazy and distant memory to most. All finally retired between 6 and 10 am, weary, bleary eyed and durka durka -ed out. Amen.
The men's 4X50m medley relay team who won bronze
Niamh Mc Donnell collecting one of two golds
More photos here.
<-- Posted Saturday, 20th November, 2004, 13:00 GMT -->
It was early Friday morning last that 28 dedicated, and very tired DCU waterpolo players dragged themselves from bed to perform some "whup-ass" at the 2004/2005 Irish Intervarsity Waterpolo Championships.
NUI Galway proved too strong for the ladies in their first match, although they fought like they know how to keep the game to a 6-3 win for the hosts. The next game proved more fruitful and UL got a taste of some of DCU's fine finishing skills with an impressive 7-2 victory. A vicious QUB team knocked the nail in the coffin for our girls' championships as they unfortunately narrowly lost out in their last group match. Mucho respect has to go out to the girls though for a valiant effort and big improvement from last year.
Meanwhile, the well-oiled machine of the male team was on its course for revenge after last year's semi-final defeat. The group stages re-affirmed the need for 2 pairs of togs, and as much ginseng as the body could hold (which was also tested in the 2 nights of highly dubious after-hour frolics.) QUB were first up to get the DCU treatment and suffered a whopping 10 goal defeat at 12-2. The Galwegians, who later went on to reclaim the title, proved a tougher test. Even the left-handed round the back shots couldn't prevent a 5-2 defeat for our boys. The final obstacle to a semi-final place were UCC who put up a fair fight, until the superior DCU strength pulled the team away to a 10-5 win.
DIT were hotly favoured by many as the championship contenders, but after the first quarter, the DCU lads were holding a commanding 2-1 lead. It took until the third quarter for the skills of the 3 Irish U-19 players on the opposition team to really begin to show. DCU hung on till the end, and 3 goals inside the last 2 minutes gave the final score an unfair gloss: A brave defeat at 14-9.
Well done to all the crew for a fine display both in the pool and socialising with the best of them out of the water. May the fun and games continue.
The men's waterpolo team for the weekend
<-- Posted Monday, 20th April, 2004,
13:00 GMT -->
Club's last An Tarbh article for the
year:
Last Tuesday saw the swimming club embark
on a landmark journey to Ballymun swimming pool where
we completed the last ever DCU training session to be
held there having used it for twenty years!
Now however we are very excited at the prospect of moving
into the new DCU pool being opened on campus by next semester,
where our club have been promised more access to swimming
facilities.
Alongside this we are currently purchasing new gear such
as swim caps and T- shirts as well as new equipment for
the club which should help us continue the excellent swimming
results which we achieved this year.
The swimming club AGM was also held
on Tuesday night where the new committee was elected.
It stands as follows:
Honorary President: Cathal Fury
Chairman: Brendan Clerkin
Treasurer: Fintan Lillis
Secretary: Yvonne Emerson
PRO: Damian Connolly
Equipment/Safety Officer: Tomás Bacon
Congratulations to all who were
elected and thanks to our previous committee for all their
hard work in making this one of the most successful years
in the club's history.
We hope to add some new members to the committee next
semester so if you're interested let us know!
The swimming club will be recruiting members next semester
at clubs and socs day so don't forget to join up so you
too can enjoy extra access to the pool and participate
in the many fun varsity competitions held around the country
throughout the year!
Finally the DCU swimming and waterpolo club would like
to wish all our members a great summer and we hope to
see you all next year in our new pool!!
<-- Posted Monday, 5th April, 2004,
13:00 GMT -->
Well well, what a fantastic success
the swimming intervarsities in Belfast were. A fantastic
crowd from DCU travelled up for the weekend. Full report
available on the swimming page as well as a few photos.
<-- Posted Thursday, 18th March,
2004, 12:08 GMT -->
Well as you can see it's been quite
a while since this website has been posted to!! However
the 'new and enthusiastic' committee, have finally turned
their attention towards our web presence. And what an
amount of news there is to be told.
Reports are shortly to appear on this
page of the the hugely successful Intervarsity Waterpolo
Championships 2004, which were hosted by ourselves and
Trinity only 1 week ago. Also, the swimming intervarsities
are fast approaching, so register your interest as soon
as possible for a weekend of fun and frolics in Belfast!
Keep an eye out also for the new
DCU swimming & waterpolo gear (hats, teeshirts etc),
which will be appearing soon.
<-- Posted Friday, 8th Feb, 2002,
12:08 GMT -->
The Senior Swimming & Waterpolo Intervarsities are taking place this
weekend. This year the event is being hosted by our close friends
from UL and the
competition itself will take place in the University's new sports
complex, the University Arena
. This is the inaugural event to take place in Ireland's first
50m, Olympic-sized swimming pool and as such it is a proud day for
Ireland's intervarsity teams. Let's hope all runs smoothly, and best
of luck to all the teams involved.
Stay tuned for results and...more photos!
<-- Posted Wednesday, 28th Nov, 2001, 11:34 GMT -->
Swimming training has been cancelled for this week, the 27th and
28th of November. This is due to heating problems at the Ballymun
pool. Hopefully we will resume next week, we'll be in touch about
that. Hope nobody was put out too much:)
<-- Posted Wednesday, 15th Nov, 2001, 11:18 GMT -->
Well, bit of a disaster yesterday with the UL team not showing up,
but it wouldn't have mattered, the points were always in the bag:)
Still, we did get a good session done. For a full report on
the 35's visit the SCC's website here.
<-- Posted Tuesday, 13th Nov, 2001, 12:53 GMT -->
The annual 35's Trophy will be held tommorow, with UL
travelling up this year. UL won the tournament last year, so revenge is due! If anybody in the club is
interested in competing tommorow please ensure you attend training in Ballymun this evening, as the
team will be picked then. It'll be a good laugh, the competition isn't too serious, and there'll
be a great night out afterwards (hopefuly not in Jets!). See you at training.