Whanganui swimmers bring home stacks of personal bests and top placings from Taupō

Members of the Whanganui Swim Team had a successful meet in Taupo.

The Whanganui Swim Team travelled to Taupō over Kings Birthday weekend to compete in the XLR8 Swim meet hosted by the Taupō Swimming Club.

With the wave of sickness ripping through the community the team was reduced to 17 athletes aged 10-16. The meet was capped at 300 swimmers from 28 clubs, making it one of the larger meets of the year.

Whanganui swimmers achieved a total of 65 personal best times, 36 top three placings and six new Whanganui Age Group Short Course (25 metre pool) records. 11 Whanganui swimmers achieved individual event medals: Ziva Bunker (8), Paige Conley (6), Rachel Pui (6), Ryleigh Dorricott (5), Sophia Kopu (3), Sophie Bennetts (2) and Amelia Boden-Cave (2), Harriet Aplin, Rebecca Boden-Cave, Bailee Jones and Salvador Mazzieri.

The Whanganui Swim Team enjoyed a successful event in Taupo, collecting over 60 personal bests and numerous top three placings.

Some Whanganui swimmers also won their overall age groups based on the XLR8 points system; Ziva Bunker - 1st place, 11 years, Ryleigh Dorricott - 3rd place, 12 years, and Sophia Kopu, 3rd place, 10 years.

Ziva, who had enjoyed a successful meet the previous week in Auckland, scooped up four new Whanganui short course records in the 11 years age group. Ziva’s time of 2:45.71 in the 200m Medley was half a second faster than the previous record set by Evon Storey back in 2006. In the 50m Freestyle she shaved 0.03 second off Shannon Schimanski’s previous record from 2012 to finish in 31.35 and in both the 50m and 200m Backstroke Ziva lowered her own previous records from the South Island Juniors by 0.3 and 1.4 seconds respectively (touching in 33.81 and 2:36.43).

Also in the 11-year-old age group, it was the first competitive trip away for both Sienna Andrews and Lola Leport-Symonds. Sienna achieving six personal bests and Lola achieving a personal best.

Paige Conley set two new Whanganui short course records in the 14 years age group. In the 200m Butterfly Paige’s time of 2:28.59 took 2.2 seconds off Bianca Vettise’s previous record from 2007 and in the 1500m freestyle Paige’s time of 18:31.39 was 10 seconds clear of Laura O’Keeffe’s previous short course record from 2012.

Other team highlights included; Sophie Bennett’s seven personal bests from seven events, Sophia Kopu and Lusia Smith - five personal bests, Harriet Aplin, Bailee Jones and Eli Webber-Kelly - four personal bests and. Evelyn Packard three personal bests.

Stand in coach for the meet, Aaron Bunker, said it was a great meet and gave many of the younger swimmers an opportunity to travel away and attend a large meet.

The results of the team show that coach Richard Gheel has the team on a great trajectory as they head into the 2024/2025 swimming season that begins on July 1.

Thanks to coach Richard Gheel, the parents and caregivers who support the athletes and of course the swimmers who put the mahi in, the club is going well.

The club would like to thank Hayman Industries, Extol Engineering Ltd and PAK’nSAVE Whanganui for their sponsorship towards this trip, and their ongoing sponsors New Zealand Community Trust (NZCT) and David Jones Motors.

The next event for the Whanganui swim team is session two of the club night double header, taking place on June 14. Members of the public are welcome to come and watch the event, it starts at 5.30pom at the splash centre.

Anyone interested in supporting the club, training with them or if anyone wants to help with some volunteer coaching: email whangabuiswimclub@gmail.com or follow the club - Whanganui Swim Team on Facebook.