On Tuesday 18 February the whole College attended our annual De La Salle Swimming Carnival at Birrong Leisure Centre. It was a fantastic 27 degree day and perfect swimming weather for the students.
All houses competed strongly on the day and were looking to start the year with extra house points to edge closer to the Shield of Spirit Trophy. The Year 7’s came flying out of the gates for our freestyle events with William Barbagallo, Jamie Lumakovski, Justin Qiu, Nathaniel Huang, Ryan Brophy, Jackson Jansou and Geordy Georgiou all claiming bragging rights early on in the races.
Patrick House, the defending champions, stamped their authority on the carnival with some strong performances in their quest for a 4-peat win. Francis House, however, were up to the challenge, producing some excellent results in their desire to rain on the Patrick House parade. Breaststroke saw Kyus Than, Thomas Nguyen, Arin Pandit, Nathaniel Huang, Joshua Wong and Tom Beattie produce great results and all took home gold in their age groups.
A welcome feature of the carnival is the free time swim for year groups. This gives the boys a break from competing and some time to enjoy a free swim to escape the heat of the day. Each year group soaked it in and had an excellent time with their mates.
Backstroke was highly competitive and Brandon Le, Jamie Lumakovski, Corey Hogan, Nathaniel Huang, Ryan Brophy and Jackson Jansou all placed first. The Final individual event for the day was the butterfly. Arguably the most technically difficult stroke, however the boys’ times for this event were impressive. Brandon Le, Jamie Lumakovski, Arin Pandit, Marcus Sortwell, Frank Doxaras, Jackson Jansou and Geordy Georgiou all took top honours in this final event.
The house relay (one student from each grade) is always a favourite event and the chants from the stands during the race was deafening and helped to spur the boys on. The staff and student novelty relay was also a very tightly contested affair with Patrick taking gold, Francis silver and Joseph bronze. The Year 12 novelty race provided some comic relief with students floating or swimming to the finishing line with some unique inflatables. Well done to the Francis House who managed to win this novelty race this year.
A great end to the day is the war cry chants which is the final chance to earn house points. All houses came together and showed exceptional unity and spirit on the day. The power of collective voices was certainly on display with each house chanting in full war cry mode. It made the judging of the best chant very difficult, however, Francis claimed the 50 points for the war cry for their unison of voice and unique movements.
This was a terrific day of competition and a great exhibition of house spirit. Despite the effort of the other houses, the Patrick House juggernaut continues. Congratulations to Patrick House and captain Fetaulaki Sete. This was a great team effort from all the Patrick boys coming away with 660 points to claim the 2025 Swimming Carnival Trophy.
Well Done!
It was a memorable day which would not have been possible without our fantastic staff running the events and the effort of all students. Congratulations to all those students who have been selected into the College Swimming Team. The College Swimming Team will compete at the Conference 3 Sydney Catholic Schools Carnival on Tuesday 4th March. Congratulations to the following age champions from each age group:
2025 Swimming Age Champions:
12 Years – Brandon Le
13 Years – Jamie Lumakovski and Thomas Nguyen
14 Years – Corey Hogan and Arin Pandit
15 Years – Nathaniel Huang
16 Years – Noah Braddick
17 Years – Jackson Jansou
Opens – Geordy Georgiou