City swimmers make their mark at NZ champs

24th February 2010

The Wanganui Swimming Club team had a memorable New Zealand junior championships in Wellington last weekend.

The team of eight scored two medals, six top 10 placings, five Wanganui records and personal bests.

Kate O'Fee, 12, produced an outstanding 200 butterfly, improving 10 seconds on her previous best to place second in New Zealand. Her time of 2:43.65 was a Wanganui record and was just a second behind the gold medalist from Auckland.

O'Fee was also 10th in the 100 butterfly in a Wanganui record of 1:16.76.

Laura O'Keeffe, 11, improved a further second on her 50 butterfly to win bronze in 32.89. O'Keeffe also placed sixth in 100 butterfly, eighth in a Wanganui record in the 100 freestyle (1:09.68) and ninth in 200 freestyle (2:34.74).

Other top 10 placings went to Jaimee Schimanski, 11. Schimanski was sixth in a Wanganui record in the 200 backstroke (2:46.13) and eighth in the 100 backstroke (1:20.58).

The girls' relay teams of O'Fee, Schimanski, O'Keeffe and Samantha Miller held out both Taranaki and Manawatu in the 4 x 50 medley relay with Miller doing the final freestyle leg and building on her personal bests over the weekend.

The boys also fought off the Taranaki team with James Dowman, 12, swimming the backstroke, Jacob Smith, 11, the breaststroke, Caleb Martin, 12, the butterfly and Fergus Smith, 11, the freestyle legs in the medley relay.