Young swimmers from St Teresa’s excel at 2025 Junior Nationals in Cape Town
Two St Teresa's School learners made a buzz by winning medals, achieving personal bests, and delivering standout performances at the recent 2025 South African Junior National Aquatics Championships in Cape Town.
Two rising stars from St Teresa’s School have made quite a splash at the 2025 South African Junior National Aquatics Championships in Cape Town, with podium finishes, personal bests, and promising signs of even greater things to come.
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Grade 10 learner Tyra Penn captured attention by winning three medals in her speciality breaststroke events. She earned a bronze medal in the 50m, along with silver medals in the 100m and 200m, the latter achieved with an impressive personal best time of 33.48 seconds. Tyra’s impressive performances didn’t end there. Just a few weeks earlier, she competed against South Africa’s top swimmers at the Senior National Swimming Championships in Durban, where she participated in six individual events and a relay. During this competition, she set a personal best of 00:02:39.20 in the 200m breaststroke, finishing in 11th place, and also recorded personal best times in the 50m freestyle and butterfly events.
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Described by her coaches as fiercely determined and quietly tenacious, Tyra continues to impress with her consistency and hunger for improvement.
Hot on her heels is Grade 7 pupil Aimee van der Merwe, who competed in an eye-watering nine events in Cape Town, ranging from freestyle, to backstroke, butterfly, and the demanding 200m individual medley. Aimee emerged from the meet with four new personal bests, including a standout swim in the 100m butterfly, clocking a superb 00:01:15.98 to earn a coveted South African National Junior age group qualifying time. She also placed sixth in the 100m freestyle, and 10th in the 50m butterfly, proving that she is versatile and highly competitive across distances and strokes.
St Teresa’s swim programme has long prioritised discipline and development, and the recent achievements of Tyra and Aimee reflect just that. With talent, tenacity, and the backing of a supportive school community, these young athletes are certainly swimming in the right direction.
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