Greerton swimmers win 20 medals at NZ Short Course championships

The Greerton swim team that won 20 medals at the short course nationals in Auckland. Photo / Supplied

The Greerton swim team performed superbly at the NZ Short Course swimming championships in Auckland last week.

When the team delivered six medals on day one of the five-day championship even the normally conservative master coach Tai Daniela was heard to utter the word "good". The final medal tally numbered 20.

Possibly exceeding even his high expectations was the 13-year-old duo of Louis Fitzjohn and Thomas Wilkinson.

Fitzjohn finished the meet with five NZ titles and two silver and two bronze medals. His golds came in the 1500m, 200m and 400m individual medley, the 400m freestyle and the 200m butterfly setting Bay of Plenty records in all but the freestyle events.

When he wasn't winning, more often than not it was outstanding cross-town rival Tarquin Magner from Otumoetai taking the win (and a national record), which meant the BOP swimmers dominated this age group.

Backing up Fitzjohn was the unheralded Wilkinson who has trained hard with Fitzjohn over the past couple of years and this year broke through on the national scene with two silver medals and a bronze medal behind his teammate.

Both boys broke the existing BOP record in both the 200m and 400m medley.

"That two 13-year-old boys training out of our inconspicuous little pool, in an unremarkable outer suburb of Tauranga, can place first and second in a national swimming final I find really quite astounding. A fantastic result for the boys and the programme," Greerton club president Michael Pugh said.

Lochlainn O'Connor. 16, put an extended period of illness behind him breaking nine BOP records on the way to two NZ titles in the 100m and 200m butterfly events, plus two bronze medals in the 50m butterfly and 200m medley.

Travis Hudson, 14, who began swimming with Greerton only this season, showed huge improvement across all strokes. In his preferred breaststroke events he won gold in the 200m in 2:27.16, a BOP record, and he also took silver in the 50m (BOP record 30.96) and 100m events.

The team also picked up plenty of unlucky fourths, with Hudson scoring three of them.

Kim Cadzow, 15, was fourth in the 100m backstroke and made top 10 positions in the 50m backstroke, 200m medley and 200m backstroke.

Others to achieve top 10 national rankings were the ever-consistent Connor Farrell, 15, who made five top 10s and had a worst placing of 11th; Tessa Bradley, 17, who swam a fine 800m freestyle for 7th, as did Mia Pugh, 16, who was just ahead of teammate Ella Browne, 17.

William Armstrong, 15, swam strongly to record a national 11th and 12th in personal best times in the 200m breaststroke and 400m medley. Aidan Heath, 14, swam a 1500m personal best placing 8th while Jessica Martin, 14, competed in four events with a best placing of 16th in the 50m butterfly.