Swimmers splash their way to victory
Spectators can make or break an event.
And this week the Lowveld schools proved that their crowd support was of the very best, and this was at the poolside.
Yes, Penryn College had the Van Riebeeck pool’s pavilion in Nelspruit resounding with joy and cheers at the annual interhigh swimming championships.
This year, Curro School had the honour of hosting this prestigious event for eight of the top schools in the circuit.
They were Barberton High, Rob Ferreira, Uplands College, Penryn College, Hoërskool Nelspruit, Curro, Bergvlam and St Thomas Aquinas.
Participation was the name of the game as some of the swimmers really
battled with the difficult strokes like butterfly, but they completed their
heats in style.
One thing is certain, there is no shortage of swimming talent in the Lowveld. Milan van Veenhuyzen of Hoërskool Nelspruit outshone the senior boys and walked away with the senior victor ludorum for his victories in the boys 16 and over – 200m IM, boys 17 – 50m butterfly and
boys 17 – 50m free style.
He was matched by Samatha Lovett of Penryn College as the senior
victrix ludorum for her girls 16 and over – 200m IM, girls 19 and under – 50m butterfly and girls 19 and under – 50m freestyle victories.
In the junior category Landau van Rooyen of Uplands College won all his events, boys 15 and under – 200 IM, boys 14 and under – 50m butterfly, boys 14 and under – 50m breaststroke to be crowned the victor ludorum together with Elsabé Rautenbach of Bergvlam as victrix lodorum.
Rautenbach won the girls 15m – breaststroke, girls 15 and under – 200m IM and the girls 15 – 50m butterfly.
At the end of the day it wasn’t an event for individual brialliance, but the Lowveld’s top swimming school.
Uplands College boys and girls swept the board with the team rankings. The boys accumulated 437 points, followed by Hoërskool Nelspruit on
336 and Penryn College on 259.
Uplands’ girls scored 394 points, closely followed by Penryn College on 352 and Hoërskool Nelspruit on 330,5.
Uplands College took top honours by thrashing the opposition in the combined scores with 831 points.
Second place belonged to Hoërskool Nelspruit on 666,5 followed by Penryn College 611, Curro 357, Rob Ferreira 326, Hoërskool Bergvlam 240,
St Thomas Aquinas 154 and Barberton High 109,5.
