House Swimming Carnival

On Friday 16 February, the whole school headed to Aquarena, in Doncaster for the 2024 House Swimming Carnival. House spirit was well and truly alive this year with one of our best Year 12 dress ups in years! The senior students led by example and showed what House spirit is all about. With House points up for grabs not only in the pool but in novelty events and tugs of war, everybody had the opportunity to compete for their house.

In the pool, the swimming was hotly contested. We had some stand out individual performances with Conor Hayes (Everard) winning all seven of his races in his last Eltham High Swimming Carnival. Samuel Hartley (Everard) continued to dominate his age group with five 1st place ribbons. Annabelle Lowe (Everard), Olivia De Jonge (Skipper), Ebony Bire (Pakana), Archie Bonga (Skipper) and Matthew Brophy (Pakana) all won 4 races each.

Records were being broken all over the pool with Conor Hayes (Everard) breaking 4 records in the 400m Freestyle, 200m IM, 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly; Ben Van Dijk (Skipper) breaking the 50m backstroke record as well as the 50m butterfly; and Matthew Brophy (Pakana) breaking the 50m backstroke record.

Congratulations to our teacher relay team of Mr Stubbings, Mr Nicassio, Ms Turner and Mr Meddings who took on the seniors in the relay at the end of the day. Unfortunately, the senior boys were too strong with Conor Hayes swimming the final leg, cruising past Mr Meddings. The teachers got their revenge though in the next race when they took on the Senior girls, coming away with a convincing win.

Students who won their events have been invited to represent Eltham High School at the upcoming Nillumbik/Banyule District Swimming Sports which will be held on Friday March 1.

At the end of the day, after over 70 races, EVERARD House took out back-to-back victories ending 246 points in front of their nearest rival.

Final House points were as follows:

1st place: EVERARD 591
2nd place: SKIPPER 345
3rd place: PAKANA 337
4th place: TONER 311

Also a big congratulations to the following age champions:

12-13 Girls – Allison Carter (Everard)
12-13 Boys – Ben Nicholls (Everard)
14 Girls – Annabelle Lowe (Everard)
14 Boys – Ben Van Dijk (Skipper)
15 Girls – Olivia De Jonge (Skipper)
15 Boys – Samuel Hartley (Everard)
16 Girls – Maddie Collier (Everard)
16 Boys – Archie Bonga (Skipper)
17 Girls – Ebony Bire (Pakana)
17 Boys – Matthew Brophy (Pakana)
18-20 Boys – Conor Hayes (Everard)

I take this opportunity to thank and congratulate Bree Pascoe for her terrific organisation of this event and whilst I know that she was well supported by the PE/Health team who stepped up to the task, Bree did an amazing job in coordinating all aspects of the day. A big thank you also to the staff who worked hard on the day running a range of events and supporting the program. It was a great day and everyone had fun. The students were great and I thank and congratulate them on how they engaged with the event.

VINCENT SICARI, Principal