SIS SWIMMING CARNIVAL

On Thursday 19 April a squad of 28 Berwick Grammar School students headed into the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre to compete in the SIS Division A Swimming carnival. The competition was tough but we still managed to get quite a few podium finishes across the day. Will Hutcheon scored a ribbon in his only race, finishing third in the 50m breaststroke, whilst Armaan Kalia was consistent finishing in the top 4 of all his races including 3^rd place in the 50m freestyle and also in the 4 x 50m medley relay.

Year 12 swimming captain Aidan Ferreira took third place in the 50m backstroke race and Ashley Chandrasinghe of Year 11 went one better coming second in his breaststroke race. Rhegan McEwen collected 2 ribbons for the day as well as quite a few ‘near misses’ finishing a close 4^th on more than one occasion.

Whilst all of these students have done extremely well at such a high level of competition, there were two BGS swimmers that stood out above the rest on the day. Matthew Merrilees followed up his dominant Athletics Carnival performance from last year with some great results as captain of the under 15 Swimming team. As well as finishing a very respectable 4^th in his relay and butterfly events, Matthew finished second in his 50m freestyle event and was crowned the SIS champion in the 50m backstroke event, defending his title from last year.

Fletcher Kaintz of Year 8 was our most successful swimmer at this carnival. He came third in breaststroke, second in the 100m freestyle and took first place in the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly. In the process Fletcher broke 2 BGS records, one which he had set earlier this year at the BGS Swimming Carnival, and the other which had stood since 2013. Fletcher has shown tremendous improvement since becoming part of the BGS swimming program and these results are great reward for all of his hard work.

Both Matthew and Fletcher will now represent the SIS at the Victorian Schools Association Swimming Championships to be held at MSAC on Monday 7 May. This is the first time the SIS has been represented at this carnival, and as such Matthew and Fletcher are the first ever BGS students to have this honour.