Scotch College

We win again in the pool
It's now eight in a row!

For the eighth consecutive year, Scotch College has retained the E M Davidson Trophy which is presented to the winning team at the APS swimming relays.

As in previous years, the swim season started with an intense training camp at Swan Hill. Under the direction of Coaches Rick Berry (swimming) and Marty Galea (diving,) together with teachers Richard Kleine and Chris Appel and Old Boys James Joseph and Nick Mallory, the team began their preparation.

Led by Captain of Swimming Edward Hennessy, Vice Captain of Swimming Edward Roche and Captain of Diving Warrick Mann, the team made an early commitment to defend the APS Premiership Swimming title knowing full well that it would not be an easy task due to changes in the format of the meet. This year for the first time, each of the four individual age group had to qualify for A or B Division.

This change brought added excitement to the Saturday morning meeting as Scotch tried to make the A Division in all of the age groups. It soon became apparent that the two younger age groups would have to perform at their best, as there were an exceptional number of APS schools that had strong young swimmers.

Scotch's two older age groups and divers performed strongly and enabled the team to claim an 8-1 duel meet record with our only loss to Haileybury in the last meet before the APS Relays.

Our Under 15 swimmers just made it into the A Division, finishing in 5th place; the Under 16s just missed out, finishing in 6th place. It was the first time in a number of years that Scotch would not enter the APS Relays as the favourite. Haileybury had made the A Division in all age groups and was clearly the team to beat.

APS Relay Championship

The APS Championship began with a team meal at the Cardinal Pavilion, followed by the traditional warm up and mental focusing exercise at Scotch, before moving to the State Swim Centre and entering with the lone Scotch Piper playing the 'College Song'.

The previous night, the Scotch divers had given Scotch a lead of 6 points over Haileybury with 3 first and one second in the four diving events.

As the meet progressed, Haileybury slowly gained the advantage, as Scotch fought desperately, scoring strongly in the Open and Under 17 age groups and matching Haileybury in the Under 15 age group. Haileybury's advantage of having their Under 16 age group in the A Division while Scotch was in the B Division eventually enabled them to gain the lead.

With one event remaining, the Open freestyle relay, Haileybury had a one point lead and the stage was set for an exciting finish.

With the whole State Swim Centre crowd cheering wildly, the Scotch Open freestyle team of Andrew Steel, Edward Hennessy, Tim Paterson, and Edward Roche swam to a new APS Relay and School Record and a 3 point APS Premiership.

It was only fitting that this relay team played the vital role in winning. Captain of Swimming Edward Hennessy assumed the leadership role of the team and has been in 4 APS premiership teams.

Captain of the School, and last year's Captain of Swimming, Tim Paterson has been a member of all 8 APS Premiership Teams, starting from Yr 6.

In a remarkable swimming career, Vice-Captain, Edward Roche has been a member of 4 APS premiership teams, and, apart from breaststroke, holds every school swimming record in every age group in every stroke for a total of 26 records.

Swimmers second at All-Schools

After the exciting finish to the APS relays, the team made preparations for the All-Schools' meet the following weekend.

With a change in this year's format, there was no diving and no Under 17 Age group, two areas where Scotch was very strong. With just three age groups, two of which were for young swimmers where Scotch was not as strong, it would be very hard to retain the Lady Ansett Trophy. Scotch did make a strong showing in the preliminaries, placing teams in the finals in all 11 events.

One of the highlights of the meet was the record- setting performance by Scotch's Open freestyle relay team of Edward Hennessy, Tim Paterson, Jonathan Denby and Edward Roche. They established a new record with a time of 1:39.69. This time was the fastest time in the nation by a high school swimming team and would have made the finals of the recent Nationals.

In the finals, St Kevin's College made a very impressive showing and relegated Scotch to runners-up for the first time in five years.

Scotch's success in swimming and diving over the past 8 years is due to the dedication, team spirit and hard work of the boys, their parents, teachers and coaches.

Coaches Rick Berry, Marty Galea and Ian Pope are to be commended for their skills and their dedication in generating team spirit.

The valuable work of teachers Steve Holding and John Buchanan with the senior team, and Chris Appel, Rodney Steer, and Jennifer Rowlands with the junior team, has added greatly to the success and enjoyment of all concerned.

Richard Kleine, TIC Swimming