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Parkes Sharks swimmers Thomas Sanderson and Marcus Skinner have achieved state qualification times at the NSW Country Championships.
Fifteen-year-old Thomas of Trundle and 14-year-old Marcus of Parkes were competing against the best country swimmers in the state at Sydney last month, both walking away with personal bests and achieving state qualifying times for December 2026 already.
This year was Thomas' fourth time competing at the Country Championships.
At Country he competed in the 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly, 100m butterfly and 50m backstroke.
Before entering the pool his goal was to take time off his 50m freestyle, and possibly get a national time for the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly.
Thomas came away with three PBs out of his four events, claiming first in two of his heats and a state time.
At the Mountains and Plains meet in Lithgow just weeks prior Thomas competed in the 100m butterfly, 50m butterfly, relay, 50m freestyle and 200m individual medley.
"At Mountains and Plains I got one PB in my 100m freestyle with one second off," he said.
"And besides that I was getting really close to my good times which I was quite happy with."
Thomas qualified for Country at previous events including State Age and before travelling to Sydney he said he was putting more focus on his gym work.
"I'm trying to push myself a bit harder and trying to do as much as I really can."
For Marcus, at this year's Country Championships he was aiming to try and hit the finals.
Marcus made a nice PB in his 50m freestyle, breaking the 28 second mark for his first time officially, he narrowly missed a PB in the 50m butterfly but he was also able to achieve state qualifying times for his age group.
At Mountains and Plains Marcus was aiming to qualify for the Country titles as he'd just moved up an age group, which meant faster qualifying times.
"I had to get some of those times so I could go to Country," Marcus said.
At Mountains and Plains Marcus competed in nine events over the two days of competition including 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 50m breaststroke, 50m butterfly, 100m freestyle, 100m breaststroke, 100m backstroke, 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley.
"I did a PB in my 50m butterfly by about two seconds, that's what qualified me for Country and for my 50m freestyle I did another second and a half off that which also qualified me for Country."
At Mountains and Plains the boys weren't the only Sharks to swim well.
Across the 20 Sharks who competed at Lithgow, the club had a massive 46 PBs, six first place getters, 15 second place getters and 18 third place getters.
Among those athletes were first-time Mountains and Plains competitors Hudson Stonestreet, Rupert and Vivienne Moore and Travis Hodges.
For Thomas and Marcus their love of competitive swimming was both sparked at school state swimming championships.
"I made State in Year 6 and I kind of realised that I could actually compete at a good level, so I started actually pushing myself to be better and competing," Thomas said.
"Same with me. It started at State but I was in Year 4," Marcus added.
"I got down there and I just got smashed out of the water by all these other kids so I thought why not try to improve."
At the moment both Thomas and Marcus train at the Parkes Aquatic Centre 4-5 sessions a week, improving on their technique and their times.
Thomas has been a Parkes Shark for three years, previously swimming with Condobolin and Trundle for another four years prior.
"I have an older brother and he helped me get into swimming, and it's something my family says is really important to know as a young kid," Thomas said.
Marcus has been a Shark for seven years.
"I'm the same, my siblings were into swimming so I followed them and swam," Marcus added.
