Swimmers take home gold at nationals

Five St Paul’s Collegiate School’s swimmers competed at the New Zealand secondary schools swimming championships after meeting Swimming New Zealand’s tough qualifying standards.

The team took home two gold, three silver and one bronze as well as a number of top 10 and top 20 placings.

Students from 150 schools from across the country congregated at Wellington Aquatic Centre from 9-11 September for the competition.

A stand out performer of St Paul’s was Ben Littlejohn (Year 9) who finished earned six medals and placed in the top four in all ten of his events.

“This is a truly phenomenal performance by Ben,” said St Paul’s head of swimming Roger Bell. “He has certainly let the New Zealand secondary schools swimming community know who he is and which school he is from.”

Other St Paul’s swimmers Tully Dickson (Year 13), Darius Hasan-Stein (Year 12), Shay Dickson (Year 12) and Brendan Hunt (Year 11) each earned personal best times in multiple events and placed within the top 10 or top 20 in New Zealand.

Results:

• Ben Littlejohn (14-year-old boys category) – gold in 50m and 100m butterfly, silver in 50m and 100m backstroke and 400m freestyle, bronze in 300m backstroke, fourth in 200m individual medley, 200m butterfly and 50m and 200m freestyle
• Shay Dickson (16-18-year-old boys category) – Top 10 in NZ in 200m butterfly and 200m butterfly, top 20 in NZ in 100m butterfly and 200m breaststroke
• Brendan Hunt (15-year-old boys category) – Top 10 in NZ in 200m backstroke, 50m backstroke, 100m backstroke and top 20 in NZ in 50m freestyle
• Tully Dickson (16-18-year-old boys category) – Top 20 in NZ in 200m butterfly
• Darius Hasan-Stein (16-18-year-old boys category) – Top 20 in NZ in 100m backstroke
• St Paul’s placed 12th overall in New Zealand in the boys division.