Swimming Sport
T
he Trinity Swimming Team approached the 2005 swimming season with a new sense of enthusiasm. There was a goal, an expectation that, after many years of holding the PSA wooden spoon, we could finally pass it on to another school. The boys went about their training by reflecting this attitude. There was purpose, intensity and concentration. Training numbers were up during the holidays and swimming was back on the Trinity College agenda. Upon the return to school, we held our first series of selection trials, followed closely by the Age Championships. It was fairly obvious by that time, that we were a different team from last year. The performances at the Age Championships showed a significant improvement from 2004. In Week Seven the Quads Carnival was held. It was expected that Trinity would improve, but not enough to leave the bottom of the ladder, as the three other teams in the Quads competition were significantly better than us last year. Our expectation was that we would improve to 700 points. The team was well prepared and ably led by Captain, Matthew Pitcher, but nobody was prepared for the fact that we stunned the opposition and moved up into third place, nearly snatching second in a thrilling finale. We scored over 900 points and were only three points behind Christ Church who gained second place. The Quads success greatly improved the confidence of the team leading into the Inters, with an optimistic mood permeating the group that we would improve enough for sixth place. Our two main goals for the Inters were to score above 500 points and achieve sixth place. So on March 17, the Trinity Swimming Team faced its destiny.
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The Inters went far better than expected. NJ Cartagena and Jakeb Norman were outstanding in the U/13 events, leading Trinity to an overall first placing in that age group. The U/14s had some outstanding swims from Kane Lucas, Xavier Foley and Stuart Love. More astonishing though, our U/14 Freestyle relay teams won in both Division one and two. Tim Quinlan, Aaron Bridges and Luke McKenzie shouldered most of the U/15 load admirably. Kered Gale put in a Herculean effort in the U/16 age group, swimming six events on the night and anchored the Division one Freestyle relay team to an historic victory. Kered’s final leg time of 24.88s must be one of the fastest in Trinity history. Our Open team was outclassed, but their strong leadership was a credit to themselves and the school. The final analysis saw Trinity snatch an unexpected fourth placing with 620 points, an improvement from 2004 of 230 points. This allowed us to equal the best ever placing by a Trinity team and build some very important momentum as we march towards 2006. Sincere thanks must go to the coaches, leaders and volunteers of 2005, who put in many hours of work across the season. Mr Dion Mepham, Mr John Watson, Mr Peter Duckett, Robert Sharp, Mark Bush, Damien Harvey and Braydon McIntosh coached the team, Captain Matthew Pitcher and Vice-Captain Daniel O’Connell moulded the team into a cohesive unit and the Mums, headed by Mrs Pitcher fed the team. Thank you all and congratulations. Dion Mepham Head of Swimming.
SWIMMING TEAM Back row: Mr Dion Mepham (Coach), Peter Bormolini, Giles Graham, Matthew Stockton, Brandon Robins, Daniel O’Connell (Vice Captain), Matthew Pitcher (Captain), Brennan Cummuskey (Vice Captain), Jacob Foley, Carl Hodson-Thomas, Sharrod Wellingham, Thomas Cox Fourth row: Thomas Rose, Bernard Sneeuwjagt, Joseph Hall, Matthew Crabtree, Timothy Quinlan, Jourdan Kestel, Sean Robson, Perry Colyer, Patrick McGinty, Thomas Hood Ben Loverock, Mr Mark Bush (Coach) Third row: Stuart Love, Damien Leipold, Xavier Foley, Kane Lucas, Desmond Yeo, Bradley Shaw, Bohdan Dowling, Brendan Foley, Samuel Bourke, Dean Foley, Aaron Bridges, Elliott Steffanoni Second row: Matthew Hunt, Luke Bollam, Andrew Shearer, NJ Cartagena, Luke McKenzie, Taylor Curtis, Brenton Bush, Edward O’Connell, Daniel Russell, Jakeb Norman, Matthew Bowen, Conor McKnight Front row: Adam Pesce, Maximillian Fairclough, Matthew Bannister, Jacob Holmes, Travis Colyer, Richard Sorriba, Rory Pilgrim, Max Tandy, Clayton Arnez, Dylan Hindle, Eugene Stewart, Charles Carter
