The Roncalli swimmers have been busy over the break with competitions around the South Island, both before and after Christmas. They are focused on improving times to qualify for national events coming up in March and April, being Opens, National Age Group Champs, and Division II.

Luka Foy has qualified in 50m and 100m fly for the NZ Olympic Trials (NZ Opens) in Auckland, late March.

Luka has also qualified for National Age Group Champs, along with Matthew Gray. At this stage, Luka has five events (50m and 100m fly, 50m and 100m back, and 100m breast). Matthew has qualified for six events (100m and 200m breast, 200m back, 200m and 400m IM, and 1500m free).

Toby has qualified for NZ Division II which will be held in Dunedin in early May.

The individual achievements for each swimmer over the summer months have been summarized below (including the national age group results for Luka which was omitted from the last newsletter in 2019).

Luka Foy

NZ National Short Course Champs (1-5 October 2019) – 16 year age group – 5th in 50m fly and 100m IM; 6th in 100m fly; 7th in 100m breast, 100m back and 50m back and 11th in 50m breast and 100m free and set 6 new personal bests.

Otago Long Course Champs – Dunedin (21-23 December 2019) – opens competition – swam five events earning five medals: Gold in 100m back and 100m fly; silver in 200IM and bronze in 50m and 100m breast and set 3 new personal bests.

Canterbury West Coast Long Course Champs – Dunedin (23-26 January 2020) – opens competition – swam 5 events and made 5 super finals (fastest 8 across all age groups) and earned one medal being bronze for 100m breast. He set 4 new personal bests.

Toby Taylor

Otago Long Course Champs – Dunedin (21-23 December 2019) – 15-16 age group - swam 7 events and placed 5th and 7th in 200m breast and 100m back, and 9th in all other events. He set 3 personal bests.

Canterbury West Coast Long Course Champs – Dunedin (23-26 January 2020) – 15-16 age group – swam 7 events and made 3 finals (including 1 super final). Placings 4th, 5th and 8th in 200m breast, 100m breast and 50m breast respectively. He set 3 new personal bests.

Chloe Venmore

Canterbury West Coast Long Course Champs – Dunedin (23-26 January 2020) – 13-14 age group – swam 8 events and made 2 finals. Her best swims were a silver medal in the 200m fly and placed 4th in 400m IM. She set 5 new personal bests.

Matthew Gray and Natasha Pannett

Matthew and Natasha swapped pool swimming for ocean swimming over the holidays and competed in the 1.5km section of the Timaru Ocean Swim. Matt was faster on the day and won the under 20 year section with Natasha not far behind in second place. So 1 and 2 for Roncalli swimmers!!

New Roncalli Swimmers

If there are new students to Roncalli who are competitive swimmers, please get in touch with Miss Jose Zandbergen in the Sports Office or email j.zandbergen@roncalli.school.nz so that she can add you to the email list to gather results throughout the year.