A wonderful group of six young athletes Chelsy Hurt, Abby Hurt, Alyssa Lawson, Jessica Johnstone, Hugh Ballantyne, and Sammie Visser represented our school in swimming over the three days here at Mount Maunganui. Over 500 swimmers from across the country jammed into a very tight Baywave to swim their hearts out for their schools so all our swimmers were racing in large and very competitive fields.
The team picked up 5 medals our best ever performance at AIMs games Swimming – Jessica Johnstone winning a bronze medal and Alyssa Lawson finishing with four gold medals in the 50, 100, 200 Freestyle, and 50 Breaststroke and breaking three Waikato Records for 12 year old girls in the process. We had a 92% personal best rate for the meet across the team and Jessica, Alyssa, and Chelsy all had top 10 finishes for their events. Alyssa, Chelsy, and Abby all swimming lifetime best swims for all their races.
Highlights for each swimmer for the meet
Alyssa Lawson – Four Gold medals, four best ever swims, and three Waikato records for this young lady – and squeezed in a few games of netball as well just to add a bit more challenge. A dominating swim right from the start set her up for a superb GOLD in the 200 Freestyle a well put together race backing her race plan and put the foot down in the end to seal a good win.
She also led our 5th place team relay off with a best ever effort as well. On day 2 she again showed her racing tenacity setting a Waikato record in winning GOLD in the 50 freestyle with a straight from the line attack. On day 3 after a bit of a wait, she chased down the top girl right on the line with a long well-judged fingernail length getting her the win in the 50 Breaststroke and then backed up into her main event with a superb master class of patience swimming a controlled first 50 to bring in her kick on the second 50 to break away from the field to win GOLD in the 100 freestyle and set a new Waikato record. A superb meet for Alyssa.
Jessica Johnstone – A well-deserved BRONZE medal for this little fighter who despite a few nerves showed all the brilliant training work she has been doing on her pacing and her mental capability to swim a huge PB and hold on for a beautiful medal in the 200 BRS. She also had two further top 10 swims with a personal best effort for 7th in the 100 Breaststroke, 8th in the 50 Breaststroke also a PB, 27th place in a 75 women field in the 12-year girls 50 fly, and 16th in the 100 Fly. Also, a 5th place in the freestyle relay and 8th place in the medley relay. A fabulous meet.
Hugh Ballantyne – stepped up like a soldier for his swims, focussed and prepared with wonderful Personal Best swims in all his events on day 1 with a massive 5 second PB in his 200 free to finish 17th overall, PB swim in his 100 IM for 17th, 3 second PB in his 50 fly for 12th and right on his best swim for 15th in the 100 Back. He then stepped up again for day 2 with a PB swim and 15th place finish in his 50 Free. He ended his meet with tough fighting races to the end for 12th in his 200 IM, 17th in his 50 backstroke, and 18th in his 100 Freestyle – more than earned a little rest after that effort.
Abby Hurt – had a fabulous meet swimming lifetime best times for all her races over the 3 days - still very new to competitive racing she not only did a PB leg in her 50 free in the relay but also dropped a massive 10second PB in her 200 Freestyle for 16th in her age group (improving 10 spots on her ranking), a 15 second personal best in her 200 back for 18th, 22nd overall for her 50 free, another huge 9 second personal best for her 200 IM for 18th, a large PB in her 100 IM to finish 29th. and capped off with a jump of 15 spots in her 100 freestyle to finish 20th She also swam to 5th place in the freestyle relay and 8th in the medley relay. What a week!
Chelsy Hurt – What a step up in her swimming over the last three days. Very new to swimming she lifted herself to personal best swims across the 3 days and just showed tremendous ability to learn and attack in her swims was a joy to watch. Chelsy took a massive 20 seconds off her 200 backstroke to rocket up to a 9th place finish, she then backed up with another large PB and 9th in the 50 freestyle. Her favoured backstroke race continued to improve with 10th place and a PB in the 50 backstroke and she rounded out her meet with 13th in the 100 freestyle and 8th in the 50 Breaststroke to have a perfect meet of personal best swims. She also swam to 5th place in the freestyle relay and 8th in the medley relay. A glorious display of swimming from this young lady.
Sammie Visser – battling back from ill health and was an absolute delight to see her back in the water swam a great relay spot to help the girls secure 8th in the medley relay and then backed that up with a strong swim in her 50 breaststroke for 30th overall in a large 60 women field. Looking forward to Sammie returning to fighting form over the next few months.
Our relay teams started off with a blinder relay swim from our young girls’ team of Alyssa, Jess, Abby and Chelsy all swimming huge personal best swims to finish 5th against powerhouse schools in front of them. Thanks so much to Chelsy who literally came straight off the cross-country park where she finished 4th to swim us home and allow the girls to compete after a swimmer had an injury illness setback.
Our girls relay on Tuesday of Jess, Sammie, Chelsy and Abby stepped up to cover our netball playing teamie they all came together to get the team swimming and raced to an 8th place finish, and was wonderful to see them problem solve and get the team to the blocks. Well done ladies!
Thanks to Mrs. Johnstone our manager and for our wonderful team of supporters who travelled to Tauranga over three days to cheer us all on. Most appreciated. Onwards to next year!
