St Edward’s swimming team with their various ribbons, awards and trophies after their historic win at a regional swimming carnival last week.
In an effort of biblical proportions, St Edward’s Catholic School swept the Southern Regional Catholic School Carnival, earning highest point scorer and winning the aggregate trophy despite their Davidesque school being considerably smaller than their Goliath counterparts.
The carnival sees nine Catholic schools in the district face off annually and while St Edward’s have historically done well, winning the aggregate trophy for the past two years, it seemed impossible they could ever win the overall point score.
“St Raphael’s Cowra has 200 students and Catherine McAuley and St Mary’s in Orange both have 400 students, so we never expected to beat those schools with only 60 students,” said principal Ken McNamara.
“We wanted to take the aggregate trophy back, as it scales success based on school population. When we won both the aggregate and overall point score, it was unbelievable.”
Indeed, given that the overall point score has only ever been won by either Catherine McAuley or St Mary’s, the chances of a small school winning it, particularly after a year off from sport, were very slight.
“Not only that, but this year the senior girls’ relay team placed first and the junior boys’ and senior boys’ placed second, despite our relay teams never being able to go above third place previously.”
Ken credits the student’s hard work training, the Canowindra Swimming Club, the parents who support the training and the school’s “growth mindset” which encourages students to work hard in all things, for St Edward’s outstanding performance.