Cranbrook Swimming: National Report
Cranbrook Aquatic Swim Club (CASC) took 23 swimmers to the Australian Age Swimming Championship from 8-14 April on the Gold Coast. The team included 7 Cranbrook Students – Marcus Da Silva (Yr 12), Max Moylan (Yr 12), Axel Robinson (Yr 12), Matthew Alexiou (Yr 11), Tate Sirianni (Yr 11), Jack Charles (Yr 9) & Jack Wilkinson (Yr 8). CASC competed in 73 races across the 7-day meet for swimmers aged between 14yrs old – 18yrs old. The Swim Club continued to swim beyond its capabilities with the swimmers achieving 52 personal bests from the 73 races. This personal best rate of 71% was a standout as all of the NSW swimmers’ average personal bests was 47% personal bests, showing our team prepared well for the competition.
The club finished 23rd on the point score out of over 300 swim clubs, improving its position by 31 spots from 2023. This was achieved by the swimmers and team attaining 2 Golds, 3 Silvers and 3 bronze medals plus 16 finalists in the top 10 and another 6 swims in the B finals. The vast improvements from the swimmers resulted in 6 swimmers being selected on the NSW team and Marcus Da Silva being selected for the Australian Junior Team. It is fantastic to see how much the swim team has improved from 2021 when it had 2 qualifiers.
The results and highlights from Cranbrook students were:
Jack Wilkinson (Yr8)
Jack was competing at his first National championships where he swam the 14-15 Years 1500m Freestyle. Jack was slightly over his personal best but swam a gutsy race in a time of 17:48.99 which was 4 seconds over his best time. He wasn’t able to compete in the 800m Freestyle due to a clash with National Surf titles on the Sunshine Coast.
Jack Charles (Yr 9)
Jack was competing at his first National championships where he swam the 14 years 50m, 100m & 200m Breaststroke. Jack’s season saw huge improvements where he dropped 5-6 seconds in his 100m & 200m races to qualify for Nationals. Unfortunately, Jack didn’t get any personal bests at Nationals, but his season was full of highlights. Jack finished 51st in the 50, 53rd in the 100 and 31st in the 200m Breaststroke.
Tate Sirianni (Yr 11)
Tate earned his first individual National medal finishing 3rd in the 16 years 100m Backstroke in a time of 57.80. Tate had a fantastic final where he did a 0.82 second personal best to finish on the podium. Tate also placed 4th in 200m backstroke, 6th in the 50m Backstroke and 22nd in the 100m freestyle which were all personal best times. Tate was also part of the Mens 4 x 100 Medley relay which won silver and Mens 4 x50m Freestyle relay which got bronze. Tate will now keep training for Olympic Trials in June and CIS Swimming Championships in Week 2 Term 2.
Matthew Alexiou (Yr 11)
Matt had a cracking swim in the 16 years 50m Freestyle. Matt qualified by just .10 of a second for the event and went into the race ranked 75th out of 84 competitors. Matt broke the 25 second barrier for the first time and swam a time of 24.63 which was 0.38 second personal best and finished 28th, narrowly missing a B final.
Axel Robinson (Yr 12)
Axel was hit with sickness the week prior to flying up to the Gold Coast which was still lingering at the start of competition. This resulted in Axel withdrawing from the 400m Freestyle on Day 1. Despite the sickness Axel still had a great meet doing a 2.12 second personal best in his 200m Backstroke and placing 11th, missing the final by 1 position. Axel also swam the 50m backstroke finishing 38th and 100m backstroke finishing 27th. Axel will continue training for the CIS championships in week 2 term 2.
Max Moylan (Yr 12)
Max finished the season off with a bang, after becoming CAS champion, he continued the good results at Nationals getting 5 personal bests from 5 races. Max got a top 10 finish after dropping 4.50 seconds in the 1500m Freestyle finishing 9th, 14th in the 800m freestyle, 15th in the 400m freestyle with a huge 5.10 second pb, 22nd in the 200m Freestyle and 44th in the 100m Freestyle. Max is also part of the CIS swim team competing in Term 2
Marcus Da Silva (Yr 12)
Marcus continued to show he is an up & coming force in Australian Swimming. Marcus went on to swim 2 individual Gold, 1 individual silver, 1 relay silver, 2 relay bronze and was also part of the NSW relay which won Gold beating the strong QLD team. Marcus had two stand out swims which was his 200m Freestyle on Day 6 of the meet. Marcus went into the meet never breaking the 1minute 50second mark, he was able to swim a blistering 1:48.45 which put him more than 2 body lengths in front of the rest of the field. On Day 7, the final day of the meet, Marcus went on to do a personal best time of 49.37 which resulted in Marcus breaking his own NSW Record which he previously shared with Ian Thorpe. Marcus now stands as the fastest 17 year old 100m Freestyler in NSW history. Marcus also achieved a silver in the 400m Freestyle in time of 3:53.16 which was 6.16 second pb, 4th in the 50m Freestyle and 6th in the 100m butterfly. Marcus will continue training for Olympic Trials in June.
Other outstanding results from Cranbrook Aquatic Swim Club included Frankie Sommerville, winning her first National Age medal in the 50m Freestyle. After finishing 38th in 2023 in a time of 28.00, Frankie went 25.93 to win a silver medal. Other finalists include Jack Kerves, Yuna Nagai and Isabelle Hanger with 3 top 10 finishes, Ollie Moclair 2 top 10 finishes and Jackson McCleery 1 top 10. The swim club has 6 swimmers qualified for the Olympic Trials in June with 2-3 more swimmers narrowly missing qualifying times at Nationals. The club is aiming to have these swimmers qualify within the next 3-4 weeks before entries close in late May.
Based on the results from Nationals 2024, Head Swim Coach Rebecca Wheatley was named as a coach on the Australian Junior Team for 2024.
Daniel Arnanmnart
Head of Aquatics