The team began with 8 galas and this put quite a bit of strain on the boys. Getting fit for swimming, water polo and rugby, while still making time for academics resulted in the standard of swimming not being competitive. The serious swimmers did, however, do their school proud producing their best effor ts in the last two galas of the season: the Top 8 and the Durban and District gala. Although, Kearsney only achieved a four th place in both, we were not far behind third place. The Durban and District gala was the highlight of the season in which every age group put in their best effor t. The U 15s even caused upsets winning the butterfly and the backstroke events. The inter house gala was again a very successful, albeit closely contested, event this year. Finningley began the day with quite an advantage due to the success of Andries Schoeman in the pre-gala events. This lead was slowly whittled away on the day, but they managed to hang on and win the gala from Sheffield, Gillingham and Pembroke. Top performers of the day were Guy du Toit and Matthew Smith who won almost every race in which they par ticipated. The sprint challenge was again the highlight and Guy du Toit just out touched Justin Faber and Matthew Smith. Andries Schoeman walked away with the senior victor ludorum for the second consecutive year and Matthew Smith won the junior victor ludorum. The Midmar mile The most popular open water swimming event in the world, Midmar has lost its sparkle for Kearsney boys and this is due to the administrative expectations of the organisers. Our numbers have dwindled to the point where only the die-hard swimmers enter. This year the top Kearsney swimmer was Guy du Toit who came in 32nd overall in a time of 21: 11. No other Kearsney swimmer placed in the top 100. The same, however, cannot be said for Kearsney old boys Troy Prinsloo and Myles Brown. Troy was pipped at the post by the winner Chad Ho and Myles achieved an excellent third place overall. Marco Botha 175 SWIMMING ATEAM Back row: C Dunnett, J Faber, A Rall, D Marshall, M Smith, L Couzens, L Schimper, S Dixon 3rd row: T Muller, B duToit, S Kang, L Jarvel, J Olive, L Crowshaw, G du Toit, G Sander, T Beunk-Burgess 2nd row: D Taylor, N Baines, J Olive, C Loader, T Roake, T Roake, T Buys, S Phillips, S Couzens, R Gibbings Front row: N Shepherd, C Louw, A Schoeman (captain), Mr M Botha (coach), P Zietkiewicz, A Quenet, L Missio SWIMMING
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