NZSS Swimming Championships

The 2019 New Zealand Secondary School Swimming Championships were held from September 12-15. Over 800 swimmers, representing 130 schools from throughout the country, were racing for national school points and rankings at Waterworld Te Rapa. St Peter’s had a team of 14 swimmers, who more than stepped up against much larger schools and showed their hard work in the pool over the last few months.

200 BRS saw Savanna Bourke swim a personal best swim to finish 16th in her 14 Year Girls age group.

100 IM had Harvey Williams step up for a three-second best-ever swim to finish 27th in his 15 year age group. Issy Wilson swam brilliantly to finish 10th in the 13 year age group with a personal best swim, Katelyn Flynn was a smidgen off her best for 16th overall in the 14 Year Girls with Jade Houston swimming a great swim for 13th in her age group and Amelia Funnell swimming a great personal best swim for 40th overall in her age group nationally in what is a huge field.

200 Freestyle had Tyler Tapper pull his lifetime best apart for a huge 5th place finish in his double age group of 17 and 18 Year Boys. Tyler has another year in this age group so plenty of room to move in what was a top-quality field including NZ Junior World Representatives, so a huge performance from Tyler. Harvey also swam a huge four-second personal best to finish 34th in his age group and make a huge step up.

Milana Tapper led from the front with a lifetime best swim for 14th in her large 13 Year age group with Issy also stepping out for another best swim for 21st in that same age group. Katelyn started strong and carried her race through to the end with a large thre-second PB for 12th in her 14 Year age group with Savanna also swimming a massive best swim for a very good 13th overall ranking.

Danielle Joblin stormed out in her swim to finish 4th in her very tough 15 year age group filled with international junior reps in a massive four-second personal best swim. Amelia backed up her good swimming again with a 24th place finish improvement in ranking of over 10 spots in her age group.

Friday morning finished off with a bronze medal to the St Peter’s Mixed Freestyle Relay team of Tyler, Danielle, Katelyn and Harvey, and Friday afternoon continued with Danielle picking up a Silver medal in a best-ever swim in the 100 Freestyle to be in the race to the end.

Full results:

50 Backstroke

· Tyler Tapper 4th and a PB swim

· Katelyn Flynn - 8th 

· Jade Houston 14th

· Harvey Williams 17th and PB swim

· Milana Tapper 25th and huge 4sec PB swim

· Spencer Cleland 33rd and PB swim

· Courtney Elliott 27th

· Chelsea Lomas 42nd and PB swim

200 Butterfly

· Savanna Bourke 5th and a 9 sec PB 

· Spencer 13th and a 5 second PB

100 Breaststroke

· Sonya Price 24th 

100 Freestyle

· Danielle Joblin - Silver and an awesome PB swim

· Tyler 6th with a full 1 second PB and a massive improvement in ranking

· Katelyn 6th and another half-second PB creeping closer to sub 59 seconds

· Jade Houston - 11th and a huge PB swim

· Issy Wilson 17th and a 1.5 second PB

· Milana 23rd and a 2 second PB

· Courtney Elliott - 24th and PB swim

· Amelia Funnell - 34th and PB

· Harvey 43rd and a PB swim

· Sonya Price - 52nd

Saturday was another fabulous session with huge standout swims from Tyler picking up a Silver medal in his 100 Backstroke and Milana Tapper qualifying for her first-ever National Age Group Championships with a massive five-second Personal Best swim in her 400 Freestyle. A long day, but a fantastic step up swims from the team again:

400 Freestyle

· Tyler Tapper 6th and a PB

· Milana Tapper 10th and a PB 

· Courtney Elliott 11th

· Danielle Joblin 12th

· Issy Wilson 18th and a PB swim

· Amelia Funnell 19th

· Harvey Williams 24th and a PB

· Sonya Price 28th

100 Backstroke

· Tyler Tapper Silver

· Jade Houston 8th

· Savanna Bourke 11th

· Katelyn Flynn 19th

50 Butterfly

· Katelyn Flynn 5th

· Issy Wilson 7th and a PB swim

· Jade Houston 8th

· Savanna Bourke 17th and a PB swim

· Danielle Joblin 16th and a PB swim 

· Milana Tapper 21st and a PB swim

· Courtney Elliott 25th and a PB Swim

· Isabella Cleland 25th and a PB swim

· Chelsea Lomas34th and a PB swim

· Spencer Cleland 41st and a PB swim

· Sonya Price 57th and a PB swim

8 x 50 Relay Females

· St Peter’s Cambridge 5th

The final day on Sunday saw another big day of successful swims. Tyler rounded out an outstanding meet of personal best swims with a 4 second PB in his 200 IM to take out a Silver medal with a barnstorming swim from Lane 1, moving his ranking from 8th to 2nd. Fantastic meet from Tyler.

Danielle showed her massive improvements over the last 6 months to finish with a Silver medal in her 50 Freestyle to be a leader in New Zealand for her 15 year age group. She then stormed out of the blocks to set the relay team up for a Silver medal performance in the relay.

Our 15 and under girls had a huge set of swims to pick up Silver in the Freestyle Relay to cap off a superb meet. Danielle Joblin, Savanna Bourke, Katelyn Flynn, and Jade Houston stepped up after a huge weekend of racing to annihilate their best swims for a Silver medal – what a weekend.

Summary of results from the final day:

200 IM

· Tyler Tapper Silver and a PB swim by 4 seconds

· Milana Tapper 8th and PB Swim

· Harvey Williams 30th and a PB swim

· Amelia Funnell 40th and a PB swim

· Sonya Price 48th

4x50 Freestyle Relay

· Jade Houston, Danielle Joblin, Savanna Bourke and Katelyn Flynn - Silver

50 Freestyle

· Danielle Silver and PB swim

· Katelyn 5th and PB swim

· Savanna 6th and PB swim

· Tyler 10th

· Issy 10th and PB swim

· Jade 16th and PB swim

· Milana 19th and PB swim

· Courtney 20th

· Isabella 26th

· Amelia 36th and PB swim

· Sonya 45th and PB swim

· Harvey 55th and PB swim