Swim Team – GPS 5 Carnival

Swim Team – GPS 5 Carnival

Friday 22 March 2024 – SOPAC, Homebush

The Shore Swim team headed out to SOPAC for the final carnival of the GPS season, the big dance, GPS 5.

The year groups in attendance were strong in numbers and loud in support – and we thank you for your enthusiasm over the course of the evening. It lifted the swimmers in the pool.

It has been eight years since Shore has won a category. We headed into the final carnival ranked 1st in the Juniors and 1st in the Intermediates, so the task ahead was to ward off any challenge from the other schools that came our way… and that we did!

Juniors – GPS Champions!

The Juniors stood up on the night with some sensational swimming, led by Harrison Ayer (13s) and Archie Lawry (14s) – all coming away with wins, PBs and selection into the GPS team.

1st – Shore (631 pts).
2nd – Newington (604 pts).
3rd – Sydney Grammar (580 pts).

Junior Trophy

Intermediate – GPS Champions!

The Intermediates held a tiny lead over Newington – just 6 points – heading into GPS 5. As the night went along, we were locked in a ding-dong battle with the black and whites, and the regular updates kept coming through, with some updates swaying in our favour and others favouring Newington.

Led by Ethan Ng, Noah McLaren and Will Bestic, the Intermediates continued to show up time and time again, taking it to Newington at every opportunity, with the final result coming right down to the wire and a suspenseful wait after the carnival to see if we’d been able to take out the title…

1st – Shore (537 pts).
2nd – Newington (511 pts).
3rd – Sydney Boys (431 pts).

Intermediate Trophy

Notable Performances:

On the evening, we also had some notable performances from the team, including:

  • 15s 4 x 50 metre Medley Relay – (Will Bestic, Sam Chan, Noah McLaren and Ollie Kelly) – broke the GPS Record, clocking a time of 1:56.71.
  • 15s 4 x 50 metre Freestyle Relay – (Will Bestic, Jonty Jagger, Ollie Kelly and Noah McLaren) – another GPS record tumbled. This was a record that was broken by Shore at GPS 1 this year (team of Will Bestic, Hugo Stewart, Jonty Jagger and Noah McLaren) – in a time of 1:41.52.
  • GPS team selections for the following swimmers who will represent the AAGPS at CIS Championships being held in early May:
    • 13s – Harrison Ayer
    • 14s – Archie Lawry, Alex Freischmidt, Josh Svensson
    • 15s – Noah McLaren, Will Bestic, Oliver Kelly
    • 16s – Ethan Ng, Harry Pollitt
    • 17s – James Bestic, Ethan Cook, Paul Russell, Daniel Becker

This Shore Swim team has won two categories out of a possible four. It is an incredible achievement, and it has taken a team-first mentality in order to achieve. All involved should be proud of their efforts.

Top image: GPS 5 Team

Mr T O’Keeffe
Head of Swimming