The Bond Bull Sharks have cemented their reputation as Australia’s leading university swimming program by claiming their third straight UniSport Nationals Swimming Championship at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre last weekend.
The squad went one step further than their 2023 heroics by claiming the clean sweep of men’s and women’s overall champions.
Last year the men won and we were overall champions while the women placed second.
The squad broke five UniSport records as they amassed an impressive 665 points to trump second-placed University of Queensland on 393 points.
The Bond swimming program takes the student-athlete experience seriously and the UniSport Games are an important event on their packed competition calendar.
The 16-strong male team led by Flynn Southam and Ben Armbruster went into the event with high expectations and duly delivered.
The women, with only six swimmers on the team, pulled together to smash out relay wins and pick up their first overall crown, snatching the trophy from 2023 winners University of Queensland, beating them by 272 points.
But it was the relay wins that sealed the title for the Bull Sharks. The team proved how ‘bonded’ they were, taking six of the seven events.
The Bull Sharks broke five UniSport relay records in the women’s 4x50m freestyle relay and the men’s 4x50m freestyle relay, 4x100m freestyle relay and 4x50m freestyle medley relay.
Olympic hopeful and Hancock Prospecting Swimming Excellence Scholarship recipient Flynn Southam also took home a record, breaking his 2023 100m freestyle result by 0.01 of a second.
The 4x50m women’s freestyle relay was the first time Mia O’Leary, Hancock Prospecting Swimming Excellence Scholarship holder Hannah Casey, Madeleine Condren and Emma Doherty had swum together in a team event.
They hit the wall with a winning margin of 3.07 seconds over QUT.
“We were thrilled we broke that record,” O’Leary said.
“We knew that to win the overall women's trophy we had to win all our relays.
“There were only six of us individual women scoring points for Bond and as relays were double points, we were all very motivated to get the wins.”
In the 4x50m freestyle the team hit the wall with a winning margin of 3.07 seconds over QUT.
“Being the first swimmer in the relay I had the opportunity to cheer on the last swimmer Emma Doherty ,” O’Leary said.
“I was a little bit excited as we were quite ahead of the rest of the field. I gave her a lot of encouragement before she left the blocks which we laughed about at the end of the race, because she was quite nervous.”
The Bull Sharks team of just 22 athletes, small in comparison to the other university teams, had their training camp on the Sunshine Coast the week leading up to the meet.
“We had a pre-Olympic trial camp and flew straight to Sydney for the UniSport Nationals meet so I was concerned that the team would be a bit fatigued,” said Bond’s head swimming coach Chris Mooney.
“However they were focused on what they needed to do. They’ve done the work, we had a strategy, we stuck to it and it ended up being a great weekend.
“The women were a standout. To win first overall with such a small team is a testament to them.”
The weekend was the Bull Sharks’ last big meet before the Australian Swimming Trials on June 10-15.
“We’ll have a couple of rest days, then we will go into quite an intense training period before a bit of break before the trials,” Mooney said.
Noteworthy results:
Women’s 4x50m Freestyle Relay: M O’Leary, H Casey, M Condren, E Doherty. 1:43.35 (record).
Women’s 4x50m Medley Relay: E Doherty, T King, M O’Leary, H Casey. 1:55.38.
Men’s 4x50m Freestyle Relay: B Armbruster, J Collett, J Coleman, F Southam. 1:30.57 (record),
Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay: F Southam, J Collett, T Hauck, B Armbruster. 3:20.77 (record).
Men’s 4x50m Medley Relay: F McLachlan, J Collett, B Armbruster, F Southam. 1:39.54 (record).
Men’s 400m Freestyle, gold. Flynn Southam 3:52.21.
Men’s 200m Freestyle, gold. Flynn Southam 1:48.57.
Women’s 50m Breaststroke, gold. Tilly King 31.94.