Wairarapa's relay teams were entering largely unchartered waters at the national junior swimming championships in Wellington last weekend, and they responded with two record breaking performances.
The boys 200m freestyle squad of Mitchell Cockburn (Masterton), Logan Allen (Masterton) Will McMaster (Carterton) and Oliver Donaldson (Masterton) posted a time of 2min 10.03s in placing 15th overall.
That was comfortably inside the previous best for Wairarapa in the under 14yrs division for a long course meet, the 2mins 11.51secs set by another composite provincial team comprising Joe Hammond, Ben Ruback, George Sims and William Hamilton in February, 2008.
The girls 200m freestyle combination of Emma Samuel (Masterton), Brittany Wildman (Carterton), Charlotte Hamill-Harris (Masterton) and Bella Biggs (Carterton) clocked an impressive 2mins 4.51secs, finishing 9th overall.
That too was a Wairarapa 14yrs and under record for a long course meet, the old mark being the 2mins 6.9secs set by an all-Carterton line-up of Katrina Simmonds, Bailey Peterson, Hannah Hammond and Grace Hammond, also in February 2008.