St Mary’s swimmer sets record

Josh Spinks won a medal and broke a record as he was among seven students from St Mary’s College (Gunnedah) competing at last week’s NSW Combined Catholic Colleges (NSWCCC) Swimming Championships in Sydney.

This year’s championships were combined with the NSW Catholic Primary Schools (NSWCPS) event at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (SOPAC), with NSWCCC having events spread over last Wednesday and Thursday to allow more time between some events.

Josh competed in 11 events and secured bronze in the 12-14 years boys 200m freestyle as he set an Armidale Catholic Schools record time of 2:20.49.

Josh’s next best result was fourth in the 100m breaststroke, and he also achieved a number of fifth, sixth and seventh placings in other events as he achieved multiple personal best (PB) times.

He will go on to represent NSWCCC at the NSW All Schools Swimming Championships at SOPAC on May 22-23.

Josh’s sister Katie swam in the 15 years girls division last week while the other swimmers from St Mary’s College were Eugenie Goddard (14 years girls), Tahnee Steele (15 years girls), William Jansen (15 years boys), Cooper Whitton (15 years boys) and Lachlan Gurney (16 years boys).

While Josh was the only St Mary’s student to win a medal, most of the others improved significantly on their entry times as they recorded several personal best (PB) times after working hard at training.