2017 NZ Juniors Festival

NSSC 2017 Juniors Team:  Back row from L - Oliver, Caitlin, Rebecca, Emily, Cate, Adam, Connor; Front row from L - Lilly, Skye and Olivia; Absent Hannah

 

In February, Nelson South sent a team of 11 swimmers to Timaru which was hosting the 2017 NZ Juniors Festival for the Makos Zone.  NZ Juniors is the pinnacle meet for swimmers aged 12 years and under and our young team headed off full of excitement at the prospect of swimming at this big meet.  Their hard work and training paid off with the team finishing 5th overall on the team points table which was a fantastic team effort. In addition there were 9 medals, 33 top ten finishes and every swimmer pb'd!  The pb rate for the team finished at 73% - here's a run-down on how they all did:

Adam - 5 pbs from 9 swims including  the biggest pb of the team with 18.21 seconds knocked off his 200 free time.  Adam had 4 top ten finishes.

Cate - had an outstanding meet with 11 pbs from 12 swims which included 5 top ten placings.

Emily - also had a fantastic meet winning a silver in the 400m free and bronze in the 200m free and recorded 9 pbs from 10 swims.  Well done Emily!

Caitlin - also had a high pb rate with 7 pbs from 9 swims and finished top ten in 5 events.

Connor - not to be outdone by his sister, Connor recorded 8 pbs from 9 swims and had a top ten finish in the 200 breast!

Hannah - was the team's only gold medal winner with gold in the 100 breast, as well as silver medals in the 200 breast and 50 breast, along with 3 other top ten finishes.  She recorded 5 pbs from 10 events.  Congratulations Hannah!

Olivia - the team's youngest member swam 2 pbs from 4 events including 7.76 seconds off her 100IM time - and is already looking forward to Juniors next year :-)

Skye - 6 pbs from 8 swims which included a bronze medal in the 400IM and 5 top ten finishes

Rebecca - won 3 medals picking up silver medals in the 50 breast and 100 breast and a bronze in the 200 breast as well as 3 more top ten finishes and swam 3 pbs from 8 swims! She also set a SNM age group record for 50m breast for 12 year old girls!  Well done Rebecca :-)

Oliver - had a sensational meet with 6 big pbs from 6 swims which included 5 top ten finishes - just call him "outside smoke"  :-)

The obvious name missing from the swimmers above is Lilly...  In what was a freak accident, Lilly badly dislocated her arm on the Friday morning before the meet even started and was ruled out of competing for the weekend.  Of course this was terrible blow for Lilly, but she stayed in Timaru for the weekend and came to the pool every day to support her team-mates.  Thankfully, Lilly is on the road to recovery, and we're all looking forward to her return to the pool... and making her mark at NZ Juniors 2018!!  

Note to all NSSC swimmers:  Bouncy pillows at Top Ten Campsites are now banned!

Full results can be found here and photos from the meet can be found here (photo cred Steve Bryant).

 

Thanks to Pub Charity for your donation to cover accommodation costs for our team!  Your support is fantastic!