To become the premier senior club in NSW swimming is no easy feat given the depth of swimming in this state, but that is what the Sydney University Open Swimming Team did after they dominated the NSW Short Course Swimming Championships over the weekend.
Sydney University Swimming Club easily took out the Combined Teams Point Score (681) beating rival Cranbrook Eastern Edge (505) and Carlile (501).
Coach, Steve Alderman, was impressed with his swimmers’ performances but stated “it was the team effort that was the most satisfying result”. Every Sydney Uni swimmer won a medal or finished in a Top 10 position in a very competitive meet.
“The depth of swimming talent in the Sydney University Swimming Team was highlighted by the results in the 400m Medley Relay” stated coach Alderman, where SU fielded two teams. SU A’ represented by Matt Jaukovic, James Etter, Sam McConnell and David Wise won the Gold medal with SU B’ (Tim Halliday, Alistaire Pickles, Andrew D’Ambrosio and Gordon Willis) winning Bronze.
In addition to that both the Men’s (Gordon Willis, Sam McConnell, Andrew D’Ambrosio and Carlos Stephenson) and Women’s (Emma Gray, Kate Johnson, Gemma Johnson and Jessica Cerni) 400m Freestyle Relay Teams won Silver.
Matt Jaukovic returned to the pool after his recent disappointment of missing the World University Games due to illness. Matt convincingly won two NSW Titles in his pet events the 50m and 100m Butterfly.
SUSF Scholarship Holder, Kate Johnson, made a pleasing return to her best form winning the Gold medal in the gruelling 200m Butterfly event in 2.13.30.
Gemma Johnson swam personal best times to win Silver in the 50m Butterfly (27.73) and Bronze in the 50m Freestyle (26.04).
Another SUSF Scholarship Holder to impress was Gordon Willis who also swam two personal best times in the 50m and 100m Freestyle events. Gordo stopped the clock at 22.96 in the 50m Free breaking the 23 second barrier for the first time.
Steve Alderman and his squad will now shift their focus to the Australian Short Course Championships in Hobart in two weeks time.
