ACC Swimming Carnival

Wednesday 20 March saw the Holy Cross College ACC Swimming team make their way to Challenge Stadium to compete in the F Division Carnival for 2019. This year, being my first as Sports Coordinator, I was very impressed by the commitment and dedication of our students to training, with around 40 students at training from 6:50am every Tuesday and Thursday morning. The team were coached by Miss Carrara, Mr Parsons, Mrs Barrett and Mrs Ryan, along with some great expertise from ex-students Hannah Schnell and Chelsea Wallis.

As the training phase drew to a close, we successfully participated in the NEAS Swimming Meet at La Salle College, were we had a chance to practise competing against other NEAS schools. In the week following we took part in the annual training morning at Bayswater Waves in which the team practised race starts, finishes, relay changes and some race strategy in readiness for the Carnival.

Our final team gathering before the big day was our Squad Breakfast where we gave out final pieces of information and announced our Squad Captains for 2019. Congratulations to Alex Rankin and Max Catlin who lead the team with pride in the training phase and on the Carnival day itself.

The Carnival day saw some mixed results, with some inspiring individual efforts and some great team efforts in the relays. The students played many different roles, some competing in all events, others being a reserve for particular events and some students really stepped up to fill bigger roles of swimming in age groups above their own, showing a commitment to the team. We commend each of the students on their achievements and we valued the efforts of each of the participants on the carnival day.

Despite some excellent efforts, we  finished in 7th position overall, which will see us compete in G Division in 2020. The culture and commitment developed by the students in recent years, with regards to effort and preparation, has been brilliant.  It was an excellent opportunity for our swimmers to compete in such an elite environment and I have no doubt that the returning students will have their eyes on bigger and better things in 2020.

We look ahead to our next ACC event, the Cross Country Carnival in week 5. of Term 2 with excitement.

Mrs Marnie Barrett
Sports Coordinator