Masterton swimmers stand out at champs

Masterton swimmers stood out amongst much larger clubs and reaped the rewards of their training at the Wellington Summer Long Course Champs held in Wellington last weekend.
More than 90 personal best times were set, numerous national qualifying times achieved, three Wairarapa records broken and individuals picked up five gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals.
Seventeen Masterton swimmers aged between 15 and 9 competed at the championships, the biggest event of the regional swimming calendar.
They joined more than 500 other swimmers from Auckland to Blenheim.
More than 5,000 individual races were swum over three days making it the biggest Wellington Championships for some years.
Impressive results were achieved across the board for the club with Masterton making its strongest showing in the middle to long-distance events. Eleven swimmers have now qualified for the NZ Junior, NZ Age Groups, NZ Open and Division II national competitions and Australian Age Groups to be held over the next few months.
Head coach Anna Kitching said the weekend proved extremely successful for the team despite the seven-session meet. "The swimmers' commitment and determination to training paid off with fantastic results across all age groups. The newer swimmers to the club showed they have the talent to be competitive swimmers, with the more senior members proving that consistent training and the right attitude can produce excellent results. We are now focusing on the upcoming national meets in February and March."
At Wellington, Isaac Foote (15) was the overall winner of the 15 year old boys age group, bagging four gold, four silver and one bronze. He set the scene for Masterton winning the 1500m freestyle gold medal in the opening session and followed up with golds in the 200m butterfly and 400m and 200m individual medleys. Foote took silvers in the 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 200m breaststroke and 100m butterfly, and bronze in the 100m breaststroke. A personal best time in the 50m butterfly final saw Foote equal the 20-year-old Wairarapa under 16 boys record in that event which he now shares with Greg O'Connor.
William Hamilton (13) swam consistently strongly, qualifying for National Age Groups in the 1500m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke. He won bronze in the 100m backstroke and achieved 11 personal best times.
NZ Division II qualifying times were achieved by Ben Ravenwood (15) in the 50m and 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly. A relative newcomer to competitive swimming, Ravenwood achieved a clean sweep of eight personal best times in eight events.
Sophie Foote (11) won gold in the 200m butterfly and qualified for NZ Junior Champs at the same time. She added silver in the 100m butterfly, again qualifying for Juniors, and bronze in the 400m individual medley, breaking the Wairarapa under 12 girls record and gaining another Juniors and NZ Division II qualifying time.
Ben Ruback (13) won silver in the 200m backstroke, breaking his own Wairarapa under 14 boys record. He also took bronze in the 200m butterfly and the 400m individual medley and swam six personal best times.
Swimming in her first Wellington Summer Champs, Taylah Mawson (11) won silver in the 100m and 200m breaststroke, achieving a total of seven personal best times.
Only seven months after moving up from Masterton Swimming Club's non-competitive Metro squad, the youngest member of the team, nine-year old Emma Samuel, won gold in the 100m butterfly and picked up bronze in the both the 100m backstroke and swam six personal best times.
Emma Brown (13) had a successful meet swimming eight out of ten personal best times and qualifying for Division II in the 400m and 200m freestyle in personal best times.
George Sims (12) took bronze in the 200m butterfly and swam three personal best times while Katherine Williams (12) achieved six personal best times. Ella Hutchby-Horscroft (14) competed well, swimming close to her personal best times.
Tessa Foote (14) swam a personal best time in the 50m butterfly, securing a place in the final and also competed well in the 100m butterfly final. This should see her compete strongly in nationals in March.
Swimming in her first Wellington Championships, Petra Hall (11) swam eight personal best times in nine events, including knocking 21 seconds off her 200m backstroke time and 19 seconds off her 200m medley time. She improved well in the 100m butterfly final.
Other newcomers to the summer champs, Jacob Smith, Szaria Leitner, Emma-Lee Rainbird and Asher Rayner were rewarded for their training and determination with numerous personal best times.