Student Success

Tegan Reder, Year 11 - M1

When swimming pools around the State closed because of the coronavirus,  Tegan Reder – like many elite swimmers – suddenly had nowhere to train.

Tegan swims five to six times a week at Aqualife in East Victoria Park and in an interview with The Sunday Times two weeks ago about her bid to make selection for the Paralympics, Tegan explained: “With my pool closing I’m not sure what will happen, but I’m going to do everything I can to keep training and keep it as normal as possible.’’

St Norbert College is pleased to have bridged that gap, offering Tegan exclusive use of the College swimming pool from now until the end of the enforced period of public facilities closures. Already, Tegan, accompanied by her father, Andrew, has settled in to a new training routine at Treasure Rd.

“I’m going to take it day by day and train as much as I can and as hard as I can. I want to get an AIS scholarship by the end of next year . . . it would be nice to make the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and from there go to the Paris 2024 Paralympics,” Tegan told The Sunday Times.

If you missed the article, you can download a copy here:

Jeann Valdez, Year 9 - T2

Jeann Valdez was way ahead of his time when he developed a passion for speed-cubing – a game easily mastered in isolation because you compete simply against time.

In March, Jeann took part in a competition called Slow Down Perth 2020, in which contestants tried to solve rubiks-cube-like games the quickest.

Jeann ranked third in WA and 24th in Australia. His best “solve’’ was a 11.36 seconds (the average was 13.18) – good going seeing as his first solve took well over a minute.

See Jeann in action: https://youtu.be/FgDBnow5GA8

Jeann explains: "The puzzle I solved is called the “clock” (if you don’t know what it is, you can search up rubiks clock). It looks like a clock too. It has nine dials on both sides with four gears on the corners and four pins in the middle. The goal is to make all the pins face the 12 o’ clock position on both sides in the fastest time possible. It’s regarded as one of the faster puzzles, although hardware isn’t too advanced.

"I actually started cubing back in 2014, but I only started “speed-cubing” in December 2018. In the span of two months, I practiced about 10-30 minutes twice-four times a week. 

"You don’t need a certain skill to solve these type of puzzles. You just need time, determination and to stay motivated. I think thhis would be considered the 'next big craze'. Statistics show the Rubik’s cube is the best-selling toy in the world since its release and within the last 10 years, speed-cubing has developed immensely.

"My ambitions for speedcubing would be to be able to solve the normal cube consistently in under 9 seconds and maybe go international. I’m still a long way off at 12 seconds, but with only just over a year of practicing, I think I can reach that goal within Year 12. I would also like to keep working with my sponsor, Dailypuzzles in the years to come and to keep speedcubing growing in the Perth area, as it is still a developing city for speedcubing. My ambition is to make finals for 3x3 in the world championships.’’

  Mrs L Quartermain (Community Relations)