Two athletes shone in particular, taking home the national titles for their age groups.
Paige Conley, 16, placed first in the 1500m and 800m freestyle, and second in the 200m butterfly. They were Conley’s first national short course titles and her 1500m time smashed the Whanganui team’s previous record by 48 seconds.
She raced against two Olympians, who were in the open age category, in the 1500m finals heat. Erika Fairweather, 21, and Caitlin Deans, 25, had the advantage of the inside lanes while Conley was in an outside lane, making it more difficult to see the other swimmers’ positions.
“It just goes to show you that she’s not overawed by the situation,” Gheel said.
Conley already had five age group titles from the New Zealand Age Group Nationals in April.
Ziva Bunker, 13, won the 100m and 400m individual medleys (IM). She was second in the 50m butterfly, 200m IM, 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke, and third in the 100m breaststroke.
She was one of the youngest swimmers to make the open finals and claimed several Whanganui records. In the 400m IM, she beat a 13-year record, set by Sarya Lower, by 11.8s.
Rachel Pui, 14, Ryleigh Dorricott, 13, and Zoe Baskett, 13, had several top-10 finishes.
Pui was sixth in the 200m backstroke, beating her personal best by 5.2s. She had four top-10 finishes and another personal best in the 50m butterfly, placing seventh.
Dorricott was sixth in the 200m butterfly, 400m IM and 800m freestyle.
Baskett beat the team’s previous 200m backstroke record held by Bunker by 11.7s, holding the team record briefly before Bunker won it back in the following heat by an additional 4.52s.
Baskett was fourth in the 200m backstroke and sixth in the 100m backstroke.
“It was obviously very exciting to watch,” Gheel said.
“Being such a small team of just five girls, you know, there’s a lot of other clubs that would have had maybe kids’ numbers in the double figures where they wouldn’t have actually been as successful in regards to national rankings,” he said.
Out of the water, Swimming Manawatū administrator Dianne Farmer was awarded life membership of Swimming New Zealand for her voluntary service at national and international level.
The future was looking bright for Whanganui Swim Team, Gheel said.
“Some of the ones we’ve got on our junior squads are even at a higher level than what those girls who went to national championships were at their age,” he said.
“Hopefully the club will go through a purple patch in the next two or three years.”
The next big challenge for the winning athletes will be graduating from their age groups into the open and senior categories, where they will face swimmers of all ages.
“It’s now the transition going from being very, very good age group swimmers [to] breaking into youth and senior swimming,” Gheel said.
“It just goes to show you that you don’t really need to have a big team to break into the top 10, 20 clubs in the country,” Gheel said.
The team’s next competition is the 2025 Wellington Junior Championships at the Coastlands Aquatic Centre, Kāpiti, on October 18 and 19.
