NZ Schools’ Swimming Championships 2020

The Western Springs College swim team performed brilliantly at the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Championships in Hamilton from Thursday 15/10 – Sunday 18/10 (and were a pleasure to manage!) The team was Henry Williams 17-18 yr boys; Sam Kenny 14 yr boys; Tobias Beaumont 15 yr boys; Tess Whineray 15 yr girls, Nauatea Crosswell 16 yr girls, and Hereata Crosswell 13 yr girls.

All of the swimmers achieved personal best times in at least one of their events (which is fantastic given the interruptions in training in 2020 due to the lockdowns) and there were some great performances by the 15 and under mixed relay team which came 4th in the 4x50m freestyle relay missing the medal by only 0.2 of a second.  Hereata Crosswell swam a personal best going sub-30 seconds to anchor the relay. Nauatea Crosswell swam a PB in the 50m backstroke and Tobias Beaumont did a PB in the 200m Breaststroke and the 100m Freestyle.

Three of the team medaled in their age groups:

Henry Williams won silver in the 17-18 yr 50m freestyle in a time of 23.52 seconds. It was a fantastic swim against some of the top freestylers in NZ. 

Sam Kenny won silver in the 14 yr 200m butterfly and bronze in the 100m butterfly

Tess Whineray won gold in both the 15 yr 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke and silver in the 50m backstroke and achieved a NZ age group development squad time for both the 100 and 200m backstroke event.  

Next year there will be a North Island Secondary Schools’ meet in Wellington and the National Secondary Schools’ Champs are to be held in Auckland so there will be an opportunity for more Springs swimmers to compete in 2021. 

Sandra Thomas (Team Manager)