Swimming: Teamwork snares Mount relay title

Mount Maunganui Swimming Club's successful team.

Mount Swimming Club's summer of success continued at the Swim BOP Relay Championships at the weekend.

After finishing the best of the Bay's clubs at the national swimming championships in February, the club won the overall title at the relay champions held in Whakatane.

Coach Scott Bartlett said it was the first time in around 15years that the club had won the title.

Club teams won the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay (Adam Simpson. Molly Shivnan, Hamish Miller, Isabella Akroyd), the boys 10/11 year olds 4x25m freestyle relay (Kel Iggulden, Xavier Morrison, Luke King, Gus Shivnan), the boys 10/11 years 4x25m medley relay (Kel Iggulden, Xavier Morrison, Luke King, Gus Shivnan) and the masters 4x25m freestyle relay (Scott Bartlett, Sarah Shivnan, Greg Swanberg, Dallas Couvee).

Mount Maunganui teams also finished second in seven of the 16 relays and third in two.

"Our club's been growing and we thought that we'd have a pretty good representation through the different age groups, so we targeted this meet and set up some pretty good relay teams," said Bartlett.

"We've got some really good kids going through the programme now so we thought, lets get a bus, go down as a team, walk in as a team and see how we go."

In relay swimming the changeover is critical.

"It's not difficult, but you need to practice it because if you make a mistake on the day, you are disqualified, so we did a bit of prep work, talking about the different aspects of relays and how they work."

In some ways, Greerton Swimming Club had a frustrating meet, with changeover infringements costing them two titles, including the Greerton Shield for the open women 4x50m medley which has been in club hands for many years.

The team, however, fought back strongly to win three titles.

The most dramatic win came in the final event, the 10x25m freestyle grand relay for the Jim Gardner Trophy.

This event is a real test of depth for clubs as it consists of one male and one female of age groups under 9, 10/11, 12/13, 14/15, 16 and over. Greerton fielded two teams with the A team of Arianna Roberts, Thomas Richardson, Millie Quin, Daniel Harrington, Jessica Martin, Connor Farrell, Tessa Bradley, Lochlainn O'Connor, Libby Bradley and Cai Jager out-performing the very strong Mount Maunganui outfit by taking the lead in the final 25m.

Another prestigious win was that of the Mikaere Shield, a trophy that has been on display at the Greerton Aquatic Centre since 2011 and will remain there for another year after Olivia Cummings swam a strong anchor leg and was backed up by national age group competitors Connor Farrell, Lochlainn O'Connor, Cai Jager, Libby Bradley and Kim Cadzow.

Greerton also won the Kawerau Senior Trophy over 4x50m freestyle with Ella Moor joining the successful O'Connor, Bradley, Jager trio.

The team had two seconds in the boys 10/11 freestyle relay and mixed 12-14 medley. The mixed open medley relay team place third.

Overall the Mount finished on 141 points, Swim Rotorua on 128 and Greerton on 93. Otumoetai finished sixth on 47 points.