Olympic medallist Mollie O’Callaghan leads QGSSSA swim triumph for St Peters Lutheran
Records tumbled as a Tokyo Olympic Games triple medallist helped her school to victory at Wednesday night’s coveted QGSSSA schoolgirl swimming championship.
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Tokyo Olympic Games triple medallist Mollie O’Callaghan helped power St Peters Lutheran College to a record equalling ninth successive QGSSSA (Queensland Girls Secondary Schools Sports Association) swimming championship tonight.
With Australia’s new princess of the pool, the great Ariarne Titmus, watching on, her old school of St Peters snared the coveted Mollie Gould Cup for overall winner.
The win was another triumph for the school’s head coach, Olympic mentor Dean Boxall, who only two weeks earlier took the St Peters’ boys to its schoolboy championship (AIC).
It was a high class performing field, with four individual QGSSSA records and a relay record.
St Peters’ trio of O’Callaghan (50m freestyle), Ainsley Trotter (15 years 50m backstroke, 29.74) and Isabella Morris (14 years 50m freestyle) all broke QGSSSA records.
Brisbane State High School’s Annika Silvester (12 years, 50m butterfly, 30.31) also broke an individual record, and then St Peters foursome of Gemma Glen, Chloe Cholet, Gabrielle Frisbee and Josephine Illing combined for a B Division 4x50m freestyle record.
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Moreton Bay College challenged St Peters throughout, but St Margaret’s threw a cat among the pigeons with a couple of late relay wins to finish second, while BSHS and Somerville House also claimed relays ahead of the Junior and Senior Brockways.
St Peters then steadied in the run home with wins in the 16 years Div A and Div B relays, and then the 17 years Div A and Div B.
Final placings: 1. St Peters Lutheran College, 2. St Margaret’s Anglican Girls’ School, 3. Moreton Bay College 4. Somerville House, 5. Brisbane State High School, 6. Brisbane Girls’ Grammar School, 7. St Hilda’s School, 8. St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School, 9. Clayfield College, 10. Ipswich Grammar School.
The Percentage Cup winner was 1. Clayfield College, 2. MBC, 3. St Margaret’s.
Trotter’s backstroke record surpassed BGGS old girl Minna Atherton who was a 2020 world swimming championship silver medalist for the Dolphins.
And in a history-making moment, a multi-class event was staged for the first time in QGSSSA history, with St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School’s Phoebe Finlay and St Hilda’s Holly Warn swimming pioneers in the open 50m breaststroke.
With the likes of O’Callaghan, Ella Ramsay, Jamie Perkins, Trotter, Barclay and Semra Olowoniyi to the forefront, St Peters were always going to take some beating.
But Moreton Bay College gave plenty of cheek while St Margaret’s Anglican Girls’ School were high achievers on a night where supporters of every school had something to cheer about.
There was a huge moment in the meet when St Peters went bang, bang, bang to win 50m freestyle sprint after 50m freestyle sprint.
Charlotte Cran’s stirring 14 years 50m freestyle win for Moreton Bay College was then followed by St Peters’ matching in.
Morris, Kaci Curtis, Siena Nicholson, Ava de Tina, Hannah Morton, Trotter, Michaela Hardy, Alana Ramsay and Jaclyn Barclay won all their 50m freestyle sprints for St Peters.
BSHS’s Allen then interrupted that run with her record win, but St Peters were back on the winners podium in the 17 years 50m when Semra Olowoniyi won.
St Hilda’s sprinter Cyra Bender then rounded out the 50m freestyle with a win for her school.
St Peters Lutheran College started with a bang, with a St Peters 4x50m medley relay win by Alex Cleaver, Ella Ramsay, Johnson-Tiumalu and Bridget Dennis. The St Hilda’s team of Ava Bickley, Taylah Crabtree, Isabella Lee and Collette Lyons were second.
St Peters then claimed the 16 years and 15 years medleys, with Sienna Owen anchoring the 16 years and Siena Nicholson the 15 years, before MBC broke through to win the 14 years medley (Charlotte Cran, Isla Flett. Olivia Slater and Charlotte Kane) and the 13 years medley (Jayla Critchell, Ruby Mlakar, Matilda Gava and Mila Petrovic.
Those wins had the MBC camp cheering wildly.
BSHS supporters also had plenty to cheer when Alan Wright, Sophie Cheung, Annika Silvester and Maria Mispapas powered their school to a 12 years medley victory, just ahead of the Somerville House team of Georgia Hood, Luella Battist, Julia Jeffers and Eve Albion.
Brisbane Girls’ Grammar School’s Kaitlyn Le, Lucy Vaughan, Charlotte Kennedy and Aoife Bedggood (second, 16 years medley) and then Ava Tran, Lillian Wall, Cate Ward and Astrid Thomas (15 years, medley) also had a nice moments with second placings in their medley relay events.
The first individual event of the night, the 200m open freestyle, was claimed by Jamie Perkins (St Peters), which triggered a series of St Peters wins by Ramsay (St Peters, 100m breaststroke) and Olympian O’Callaghan (St Peters, 100m backstroke).
St Margaret’s had two nice seconds in this period - from Stella Stuart and Sienna Timms - but it was nothing compared to what was about to follow for St Margaret’s.
Starting a purple patch were sisters Isabella and Sophie Martin who won the 100m butterfly and 200m open medley respectively.
Sophie Martin won in a thrilling last lap dogfight against Tiana Kritzinger (Clayfield College) and Francesca Chitukudza (Moreton Bay College).
After MBC’s Emily Robson had won the 12 years 50m freestyle, St Margaret’s then enjoyed a four victories in the 50m sprints when Tia Kiley, Adelaide Bothwell, Adel Kusztor and Mena Bertinato crashed St Margaret’s into third place in the Mollie Gould Cup race.
St Peters were back in the winning circle in the 13 years courtesy of Yoyo Wang and Steph Pettigrew (50m free), but Somerville House’s Eloise McLellan snuck through with a stunning 50m A final win.
Somerville House also had the honour of finishing second in the Junior Brockway.
There was a lovely moment for St Aidan’s Anglican Girls School in the 15 years Div A when the team of Zahra Fraser, Amelia Perry, Anoushka Falk and Charlotte Boothey claimed second.
St Peters’ Amelia Weber entered the meet having broken the 16 years Brisbane 400m freestyle record leading up the QG championship.
That record had been held by Olympic and world championship medalist, the great Hayley Lewis.
Weber then continued that winning form as St Peters pushed further up the leaderboard.
Originally published as Olympic medallist Mollie O’Callaghan leads QGSSSA swim triumph for St Peters Lutheran
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