The swimmers, who represented St Joseph’s, FCJ College and Mansfield Secondary, competed at MSAC on Thursday, April 23, having qualified for the finals meet by coming first at several levels in the competition, firstly at their own school, then at regionals, and then again in the wider Hume zone.
Lucas Popelier was the youngest swimmer, qualifying in the boys 11 year 50m butterfly, where he swam a personal best of 40.04.
Kezi Wolfe, a member of BSC but representing Mansfield Secondary College, swam a PB of 37.76 in the 50m breaststroke to come fifth. She later swam another PB of 32.91 in the 50m backstroke, just short of a national qualifying time and came home with a silver medal.
Tilly De Fazio (FCJ College) was the other local girl who qualified for four individual events. She swam 33.08 to win a bronze medal in the 50m butterfly, and then swam another PB of 30.05, to claim the silver medal in the 50m freestyle.
She finished her individual swims with a fifth place in the 50m backstroke, in a time of 37.10, and also swam a PB in the 100m freestyle, where she was the youngest swimmer and the only 13-year-old in a qualifying age group of ranging from 12 to 15 years of age.
Joey McGuigan (FCJ College) swam a time of 2:17.45 in the men’s 16-20 years 200m freestyle which was about a five second PB, and later in the afternoon, a time of 32.03 to place fourth in the men’s 16 years 50m backstroke.
Four girls then represented FCJ in the 4x50m medley relay. Tilly Jones led off with the backstroke, Sophie McKenzie swam the breaststroke, Chloe Harvey-Bredden swam the butterfly, and Tilly De Fazio finished with the freestyle. The time was 2:20.57, which was good enough to land them the bronze medal.
The highlight of the day, however, was the girls’ 13-14 years 4x50m freestyle relay. The girls were ranked as the second-fastest qualifiers, and parents and Coach Barney were on the edge of their seats.
Sophie McKenzie led off with a fabulous swim, clinching the lead. Olivia Kelly swam the second leg, with a 2.5-second PB, to keep the team in the race.
Chloe Harvey- Bredden then swam a blistering third leg, enabling Tilly De Fazio to dive in with a slender lead in the last 50m, however, Tilly had to fight off the fastest swimmer in the fastest-seeded team to hold the lead.
With a PB of 29.05 Tilly held off the East Doncaster swimmer to enable the team to finish in first place. They swam an impressive time of 2:07 to claim the gold medal position on the podium.
A great result for the FCJ College Benalla girls, who are the proud School State Swimming Victoria champions.
