NWSSA 'absolutely rapt' with triple medal haul at State Championships

As manager of the North West Schools Sports Association swimming squad, he oversaw roughly 110 kids in their bids for the NSWPSSA Swimming State Championship titles.

But whatever his expectations, Scott did not foresee the three medals that his swimmers would eventually claim by the end of the two-day meet on Tuesday afternoon.

"It's always tough to gauge when you go down there," Scott said.

"From a North West perspective, to be bringing home three medals, we're absolutely rapt with that."

Just to have swimmers make the finals was "a big effort", he added, so to have one individual and two relay teams claim medals was far beyond what they had hoped for.

Glen Innes Primary School's Warne McShane was the first to earn a podium spot, after swimming into second place in the 11 Year Boys 50m Breaststroke.

After strong displays earlier in the season. Scott "thought [Warne would] be up there" among the top swimmers in his division. But it was a stellar performance in the heat which made it clear how good his chances at a medal were.

"We had a good feeling he'd feature pretty well in the finals," he said.

"I think he wiped three seconds off his qualifying time in his heat. That was pretty huge, and we thought something special was going to come from that. And when he qualified second, it was pretty much his to lose from there."

With a time of 37.73 seconds, Warne finished just four tenths of a second behind Ashbury's Eddy Liu in the final.

He was joined on the winner's podium by the North Star Public School relay team, which won a gold medal in the Earl McGee Relay, and the Burren Junction Public School team, which claimed bronze in the Peter Dobson Relay.

After the North Star team qualified in first place, Scott said the gold medal was "theirs to lose", and they did not disappoint after a "really big effort" saw them post a time of 2:35.33, more than five seconds ahead of Illabo in second place.

Burren Junction, meanwhile, faced an uphill battle as Cumnock and St Peters Coleambally secured first and second early in the race, but third was hotly contested.

"That third, fourth, fifth bracket was pretty tight," Scott said.

"So for them to push hard over those last two legs was magic for them. It was a really good relay team performance."

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