Westlake Boys High School has taken out the National title at the Swimming Nationals in Hamilton on the weekend. It was a fitting moment when seventh form student Oliver Wu accepted the trophy on behalf of his team at the end of the meet. The Westlake Boys Swimming Captain started his secondary schools swimming career in third form and was part of the team that participated in the inaugural New Zealand Secondary Schools Swimming Championships. Since then, Oliver has shown commitment and dedication which has paid off. It resulted in a comprehensive 200 points winning margin and a staggering 25 medals (13 gold, 10 silver and 2 bronze) as just reward for the team of 20 swimmers, who were up at the crack of dawn each morning spending many hours in the pool.
Points were allocated to the top eight swimmers in each age group as well as the relays. Westlake was represented in every skins event, a strategic race event for the fastest eight swimmers across the competition where the last two in each heat dropped with literally a two minute gap between the start of each heat. This means that the boys swim and have to get out the pool and back to the start for the next heat within two minutes. If a swimmer makes it to the top two, they have swum four sprints in only eight minutes.
Finn Kennard-Campbell won one skins event and came second in the other two he qualified for. Jason Churches was second in his skins only losing out to Finn. Mats Radeck and Jaeyun Lim both qualified for their events but unfortunately did not make it to the top four.
Winning the national title caps off a successful season for Westlake Boys with a lot of hard work, long hours and outstanding efforts. All students were a credit to Westlake Boys and supported one another the entire meet. Congratulations to all involved and special thanks to Mrs Tracy Houzet and Mr Jordan Stanley for their ongoing support and encouragement.
Results:
Finn Kennard-Campbell (year 11) – 8 gold, 1 silver and 2 New Zealand Secondary Schools records
Flynn Southcombe (Year 9) – 3 gold, 2 bronze and 1 New Zealand Secondary Schools record
Jason Churches (year 11) – 3 gold
Mats Radeck (Year 11) – 1 gold, 1 silver an 1 bronze
Breaststroke 50, 100 and 200m
Bailey Wang (Year 9) – 2 silver
Joshua Lee (year 10) – 1 bronze
Relays: Medley and Free – 1 gold and 3 silver