By JARROD POTTER
LEAVING their opponents in their literal wake, Haileybury College’s boys freestyle relay smashed a School Sport Victoria state swimming record.
The Haileybury Newlands campus under-11 boys 4×50-metre freestyle relay – Angus Brabner, 11, Mitchell Black, 11, William Bowden, 10, and Anthony Ngo, 11, set the water ablaze as the relay touched in to claim gold and a new state record at 2.16.24 minutes.Haileybury held onto first place throughout the race and once the anchor Ngo touched the wall – the celebrations began.
“It was really nerve wracking – everyone wanted to win,” Black said.
“There were eight teams trying to win and it was a single heat and we won by seven or eight seconds and we got a state record.
“Throughout the race we were leading the whole way – Angus gave us a good start, I maintained it, Will put it out further and then Anthony brought us all home.”
The foursome was elated to pick up the state championship and return to school as the best state swimmers in Victoria for their event.
“It was good – well we won,” Bowden said.
“I was very excited when I first went in the water and dived in,” Brabner said “I was very excited when Mitch Will and Anthony bring it home.
“It feels really exciting and I was very joyful as you’ve just won such a big achievement,” Ngo said.
Ngo also won the 11-year-old boy’s 50m breaststroke final to bring back a pair of gold medals and cap off a stellar Tuesday at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre last week.
Away from the school the foursome also swim for their respective clubs – with Bowden and Black representing Haileybury Waterlions, Brabner swims for Bayside and Ngo is a star for Nunawading.
The foursome is already geared up to defend their state title at next year’s School Sport Victoria swimming championships.
They wanted to thank Haileybury for letting them go to APS and “Mr Scar” – Haileybury’s Newsland Boys Sports Co-ordinator Dominic Scardamaglia – for his help and taking the team to the swimming events.
“They’ve trained really well throughout the season and worked pretty hard and reaped the rewards as a result of their hard work,” Scardamaglia said.
