Trophy-winning Wanganui Swim Team

CULTURE CLUB: The Wanganui Toyota Swim Team culture has helped them return home from the Wellington Regional Short Course Winter Champs with the Tawa Trophy for best team stats. PHOTO/Bevan Conley

The performance of the Wanganui Toyota Swim Team continues to soar after returning from the Wellington Regional Short Course Winter Championship with its first trophy in five years.

The team only officially joined the Wellington regional 18 months ago and left clubs with far larger numbers struggling in their wake to win the Tawa Trophy over the championship run over the past two weekends.

The Tawa Trophy is awarded for the total points divided by swimmers competing for a club. Wanganui sent 15 swimmers to compete against other clubs with up to 100 more swimmers, yet they claimed 31 medals and had 41 other top 10 (finalist) finishes.

The trophy was the first awarded to the Wanganui club since the Central North Island Championships in Rotorua five years ago despite numerous club and individual top performances over the years.

Although only six of the 15 accounted for the 31 medals in Wellington, every Wanganui swimmer recorded at least one personal best performance.

Ten-year-old Georgia Abraham headed the medal count claiming 10 from 10 events, including six gold, three silver and one bronze.

Sarya Lower (15) bagged eight, including two gold, four silver and a brace of bronze, while 16-year-old Shannon Schimanski won two gold and four silver. Elena Forlong (17) chipped in with a silver and three bronze, while Cayden Earles (11) returned home with two bronze and Amelia Cronin-Townsend (13) a bronze.

Coach Andy McLay said club culture had played a major role in the success.

"The Wellington performances were great to see, every single one of them stood up," McLay said.

"This is hard evidence that the club culture developed here is working to help lift performances throughout the age groups from juniors through to the seniors. The younger one and new members can see it's not only the top swimmers winning everything, it's everyone throughout the club.

"They can see that if others can achieve it in the pool, so can they. This trophy means a lot to the club," he said.