Wenona’s new pool makes a big splash!
It was the moment our Water Polo girls and swimmers have been waiting for (not to mention Director of Sport and Performance, Mr Hill and Head of PDHPE, Ms Bauer). The official opening of Wenona’s new pool.
On Wednesday night - at 6.17pm precisely – our special guest, Mrs Marie Soghomonian, Chair of the Wenona Foundation, cut the official Wenona navy blue ribbon, ably assisted by Dr Scott and Chair of the Board, Mr Gary Turner. And it was at 6.17pm precisely that 19 of the School’s top Water Polo players dived in for their first official ‘swim’ in Wenona’s new swimming pool in The Athenaeum.
This was followed by a Water Polo exhibition match, with the teams captained by Captain of Water Polo 2019/2020 Poppy (Year 12) and Captain of Water Polo 2020/2021 Mia (Year 11). It was a closely fought contest that had spectators on the edge of their seats. Team Poppy eventually won the game with a narrow margin of 7-5. A huge thank you to History Teacher and Water Polo Coordinator, Mr Hollis, who helped with the organisation leading up to the event, and helped to referee the game.
After the Water Polo game had finished, it was Head Swimming Coach, Mr Michael Creighton’s task to convert the pool into a competition swimming pool, complete with all the technology that has been an integral part of the design of The Athenaeum pool. The PDHPE Department kicked into gear, helping Mr Creighton convert the pool from a Water Polo facility to a competitive Swim Race venue.
What followed was a fabulous display of our strongest swimmers rounded out by what promises to be a popular fixture for future House Carnivals, the Mystery Medley Relay. Girls were randomly allocated to teams, randomly allocated strokes – breaststroke, freestyle, butterfly, backstroke – and randomly allocated the order they would compete in. It proved to be one of the most popular, and certainly the most vocal, events of the night!
After the long build up to the event, the girls declared that it has certainly been worth the wait. They were bowled over by all the technological components of the facility and excited about Wenona’s capability to provide a world class training and competition experience moving forward.
Amelia, who is in Year 10, said, “The celebration for the Athenaeum pool was such an exciting way to open up the pool for Water Polo and Swimming, and the atmosphere was amazing. It was really great to make use of all of the new equipment and technology, and I think it will benefit us a lot during training.”
Laura, also in Year 10, agreed. "It was such a great opportunity and privilege to be a part of the opening night for the new Wenona pool. The night was so exciting, and the new pool equipment was amazing for Water Polo and for the Swimming races. I can't wait to start training in it."
Grace, who is in Year 11 and is the Captain of Swimming 2020/2021, said, “Last night was super fun as all the advanced technology that the pool has, created such an exciting atmosphere to be in. Additionally, I think it’s great that it can be effectively used as a Water Polo competition pool and now to be able to have the ability to be used for competition for Swimming with the timing system and blocks is amazing!”
Isabel is in Year 6. She said, “I really enjoyed Wednesday night’s pool test event. I will definitely never forget that night. I loved the atmosphere and I think all the technological equipment worked very smoothly and it felt like SOPAC, but even better. I am so excited to start to train in the new pool.”
For the record, Poppy (Year 12) was officially the first student in the pool, and also scored the first ever goal in a Water Polo match, while Isabella (Year 9) won the first Swimming race and in the process established the 50m Freestyle pool record of 28:06secs.
Over the coming weeks, the Swimming and Water Polo squads will continue to test the pool so that we can ensure everything is ready for use by all students across our Aquatics programs and PDHPE practical sessions moving forward.
As Dr Scott said in her opening speech, we are so grateful to the Wenona community for their support and generosity in helping us bring The Athenaeum, with all its wonderful facilities, to life. And we are so grateful to the staff, students and families for their patience and understanding as we worked with Government health guidelines to make sure we could safely open the pool. We were fortunate enough to be able to capture some of the event on film and will distribute it to the Wenona community when it is available.
Finally, thank you to our Sport and PDHPE Departments for all their hard work and support in leading up to the event. And a huge congratulations to the students, who willingly gave up their Wednesday evening to help us celebrate our new pool. They certainly made a splash!