Team Westmere competed at the Interschool Swimming Champs last week, at the National Aquatic Centre, Mairangi Bay. 

Westmere had a very successful day with all 21 of our athletes trying their absolute best across all their events. The standard of competition was amazing with some incredible swimmers from across Central Auckland battling each other all day. We are incredibly proud of the effort our students put in and the sportsmanship and encouragement they showed towards each other and the other schools, even drawing compliments from Ponsonby!

Making a final at this level of competition is a major achievement (a very cut-throat process) and Westmere were well represented across all events. We had some stand out performances, notably from Liv Peebles, Johnny McElwee, Mia Elsmore and Kahurangi Cotterill who each picked up placings in multiple events, plus Eliza Allison who won the backstroke. Liv also broke the record for the 10yo Girls 25m Freestyle.

Finalists across the age-groups were:

Liv Peebles 1st 25m Freestyle, 1st 50m Freestyle, 2nd 25m Backstroke, 2nd 25m Breaststroke 2nd 100m Medley

Eliza Allison 1st 25m Backstroke

Johnny McElwee 2nd 25m Freestyle, 2nd 50m Freestyle, 2nd 25m Breaststroke, 3rd 100m Medley

Mia Elsmore 3rd 50m Freestyle, 3rd 100m Medley, 4th 25m Backstroke, 4th 25m Breaststroke, 6th 25m Freestyle

Kahurangi Cotterill 3rd 25m Freestyle, 3rd 50m Freestyle, 4th 25m Backstroke, 4th 25m Breaststroke

Harriet Gowing 4th 50m Freestyle, 4th 100m Medley 8th 25m Freestyle

Meg McKinnon 4th 25m Breaststroke

Max Russell 4th 25m Breaststroke

Tom Buckley 5th 25m Freestyle

Sam White 7th 25m Freestyle

I still can’t believe Meg McKinnon and Max Russell missed a podium spot by less than the tip of a fingernail!

Our relay team of Mia, Tom, Johnny and Liv put together THE perfect race, winning in emphatic style, and bringing the highly coveted Relay Trophy back to Westmere for the first time ever.

A big thank you to our huge contingent of vocal supporters and child-transporters. You were absolutely fantastic and it was great to see a few grandparents and even a cute fluffy mascot there too. 

Special mention to Ross P who spent the entire day hanging off the end of a stopwatch. He only needed one change of clothes... not bad in such a pressure-cooker environment!