Swimming: Tauranga's Evolution Aquatics leave NZ Age Group Championships with 35 medals and 18 Bay records

Twenty-two swimmers from Tauranga's Evolution Aquatics attended the New Zealand Age Group Championships in Wellington and achieved the best overall result by a Tauranga club. Photo / Supplied

Tauranga's Evolution Aquatics swim club left the 2019 National Age Group Championships as the Bay of Plenty's top performing team scoring 35 medals and breaking 18 Bay of Plenty records.

Evolution Aquatics sent 22 swimmers to attended the champs held in Wellington from April 16 to 20, attracting hundreds of New Zealand's best age group swimmers along with 200 coaches and team managers for five days of competition for club, region and national honours.

The team's 35 medal haul - including breaking 18 Bay of Plenty records - led the overall Bay of Plenty team to finish as the fourth best swimming region from the 19 regions taking part.

The male swimmers won 26 medals and made multiple finals to finish second in the national rankings. The female team, led by 13-year-old Talitha McEwen, placed 10th in the country with the combined scores resulting in a fourth place finish overall. Auckland clubs North Shore, United and Howick Pakuranga made up the top three.

Club chairman Michael Pugh said a top five position was exactly the result the club, which is a combined super club that merged Greerton, Ōtūmoetai and Tauranga swim clubs just eight months ago, had targeted.

"The BOP is blessed with swim talent and all we, at EVO, aim to do is combine, coach and foster swimmers to their maximum potential. If that means national medals then that is icing on the cake," Pugh said.

In a real show of depth,18 swimmers made top 10 national rankings. A club highlight was the 15 and under freestyle relay team taking the gold medal and silver medal in the medley relay. The 16 and over relay teams also threatened to medal finishing fifth in both finals.

Individual highlights were the five national titles won by McEwen which contributed to her club's leading points score. McEwen won both the distance freestyle events in Bay record times. Tarquin Magner, now training in Australia, broke eight Bay records including two open records. Tarquin won gold in the 200m backstroke and produced a 53.30 100m split to anchor the relay team to gold.

The 200m butterfly on the opening day set the club's tone for the meet. The 13-year-old boys were first with Isaac Williams scoring gold in Bay record time. Two races later Louis Fitzjohn cleared out to win gold with Evolution teammate Thomas Wilkinson scoring silver. In the 16-year boys Connor Farrell took silver followed by Lochlainn O'Connor dominating the field for the 17 and over gold medal. Williams went on to win gold in the 400m freestyle breaking Rio Olympian Kane Radford's Bay record along with winning the freestyle relay gold. Wilkinson backed up his 200m butterfly with the relay gold, bronze in the 400m freestyle and silver in the 400m medley.

The breaststroke events saw 16-year-old Travis Hudson do the national sprint double in the 50m and 100m while Josh Gilbert, 17, broke the Bay of Plenty record in the 50m finishing fourth, prior to his gold in the 100m event and breaking the Bay's open record in the process.

Daniel Shanahan, 16, showed his versatility by winning medals in the 50m (BOP record) and 200m freestyle just a couple of weeks after winning the final NZ Ocean Swim Series event in Auckland. Caitlin Farrell, 13, won silver in the 200m backstroke.

Also scoring valuable points for the club by making finals were Ben Cosford, Eleanor Gilbert, Lily Pearce, Olive Pearce, Zach Reeder, Brayden Scharvi, Zoe Wilkinson and Zachary Graham.