SIGNS are positive for the Myrtleford Swim Club at the halfway point of the Ovens and Murray District Swimming Association season, with great participation and results recorded.

To date, the club has participated in three pennants, recording solid wins at Beechworth and Mount Beauty, on top of a strong showing at Rutherglen.

In addition to the strong established crop of swimmers, committee member Kristy Corcoran said almost a dozen new members joined the squad this season alone.

“We’ve welcomed 10 new competitive swimmers, so 10 new swimmers have swum in the pennants this season,” she said.

“We’ve got really good numbers in our eight and under age group, which is really positive for the future of the club.

“We’ve got the most members I’ve seen in my time on the committee, at the moment we’ve got over 80 registered members.

“We won the first pennant at Beechworth, and the scores for the Rutherglen pennant haven’t been released yet, but we took a big team and had some good results, so we’re hopeful of another victory.

“We took a team of 35 swimmers to the latest pennant in Mount Beauty - we probably have the biggest representation of the southern (Ovens and Murray Swim District) clubs at the pennants, which is a real credit to our coaches and the popularity of the club.”

Corcoran said a real strength of the club was the amazing volunteer support, and older swimmers who were on hand to help out the next generation.

“We’ve got some really good families who stick their hands up to help when needed,” she said.

“This year we’ve welcomed three new coaches to our coaching team: Lachlan Thompson, Lily Cuskelly and Amy Gunson who have been long-time swimmers with the club - they’re in the senior age groups now and they’ve taken on coaching roles.

“The youngsters really look up to them, they’re really relatable, it’s been a really good start to the season with them on board.”

Swimmers will now break for Christmas and New Year, but will be diving back into preparation for their home pennant which commences on January 21.

“We consider ourselves very lucky, swimming’s in a good place in this Alpine region, we’ve got swimmers from Bright, Wandiligong, Myrtleford and Whorouly,” Corcoran said.

“We’ll host our home pennant on January 21, but training will resume on January 3.”