Despite the unpredictable weather, this year’s Secondary Swimming Carnival was enjoyed by all.
There were some fantastic efforts from all participants and the vibrant house colours, dancing and cheering made for an exciting atmosphere.
This year’s ‘bomb off’ produced one of the biggest surprises of the day. Year 7 student Hudson Gowen managed to win the middle school event and Elliot Stevens again won the senior event. To decide the overall winner Hudson was brought back to the blocks and to everyone’s surprise defeated Elliot to be crowned the bomb off king for 2019.
Competition in the pool was extremely close across most age groups with some champions being decided by the smallest of margins. Students swam in either the A or B division races according to their previous nominations.
Ararat pulled away to a huge 250+ point lead early in the day but they were slowly reined in by Zion and Sinai. The final points were actually much closer than anyone expected with Ararat again emerging as well-deserved house champions. The final points were Ararat 831, Zion 728 and Sinai on 707.
Incredibly, Ararat has now won 13 of the last 14 Secondary Swimming Carnivals dating back to 2006. Zion’s win in 2016 is now but a distant memory.
Throughout the day, 21 new records were set in some outstanding swims. A special mention goes to Joshua Collins for breaking six records. This means that he actually broke the record in every race that he participated in. This is an unprecedented achievement at our school. Jaymes Roser also had a massive day, breaking five records.
Congratulations to all students who managed to qualify to swim at the district carnival. In particular our age champions and record breakers.
Thank you to all parents, staff and house captains who helped make the day a success.
This year’s boys and girls swimming age champions and record breakers are as follows:
| Age Champions | Name |
| 12 | Chloe Turnbull |
| Archer Palmer | |
| 13 | Indiah Loveday |
| Jaymes Roser | |
| 14 | Ella Childs |
| Alexander Chidgey | |
| 15 | Molly McCaughey |
| Joshua Collins | |
| 16 | Amity Roser |
| Tate Doneathy | |
| Opens | Chloe Dunford |
| Reece Dahm |
| Record breakers | |||
| Name | Age | Race | New record |
| Joshua Collins | 15 Boys | 50 Butterfly | 30.52 |
| 50 Backstroke | 32.01 | ||
| 100 Freestyle | 58.61 | ||
| 50 Breastroke | 35.74 | ||
| 50 Freestyle | 26.49 | ||
| 200 IM | 2.33.81 | ||
| Jaymes Roser | 13 Boys | 50 Butterfly | 34.52 |
| 50 Backstroke | 37.40 | ||
| 100 Freestyle | 1.07.03 | ||
| 50 Freestyle | 29.74 | ||
| 200 IM | 2.49.20 | ||
| Indiah Loveday | 13 Girls | 50 Backstroke | 36.58 |
| 50 Breastroke | 41.11 | ||
| 50 Freestyle | 30.87 | ||
| Chloe Dunford | Open Girls | 50 Backstroke | 37.11 |
| 100 Freestyle | 1.07.65 | ||
| 50 Freestyle | 31.49 | ||
| 200 IM | 2.46.14 | ||
| Molly McCaughey | 15 Girls | 50 Breastroke | 42.27 |
| 50 Freestyle | 31.55 | ||
| Baylee Paterson | Open Girls | 50 Breastroke | 42.43 |
GCC families can see all the photos on our photo-sharing platform, Pixevety in the album links below: