Physical Education News
Eastern Metropolitan Regional and State Swimming Championships
The EMR Swimming Championships were held on Tuesday, 31 March at Aqua Nation. This year, Park Ridge had 12 participants which is an amazing effort considering this is the 4th level of competition. Regionals is always a huge step up in the competition and we had some outstanding results on the day:
Will Jones: 2nd in Freestyle, 2nd in Breaststroke and 1st in Butterfly.
Robbie K: 1st place in Breaststroke who not only broke the school record, but also broke the official EMR record with a time of 37.01 seconds!! This record had been in place for the last 16 years. Robbie also placed 6th in Butterfly with a new school record time of 36.81 seconds.
Logan R: 5th place in Freestyle with a new school record time of 34.78 seconds and 4th in backstroke with a new school record time of 41.09 seconds.
Sophia K: 7th in Freestyle with a new school record time of 33.15 seconds and 5th in Butterfly with a new school record time of 36.68 seconds.
Added Fact: All of the above times would have been good enough to place either a Silver or Bronze medal at last year’s EMR event!
We also had a number of teams feature on the day:
Under 10 Boys Freestyle relay team featuring Logan R, Josh K, Henry S and Jay B – 8th place with a new school record time of 3:00.29.
Under 11 Girls Freestyle relay team featuring Sophia K, Mackenzie D, Indie T and shout out to Miranda K who filled in as a 9 year old – 11th place with a new school record time of 2:50.80.
Under 12 Boys Freestyle relay team featuring Robbie K, Zach P, Will J and Lucas H – 11th place with a new school record time of 2:45.73
Open Mixed Medley team featuring Logan R, Sophia K, Robbie K and Zach P – 7th place with a new school record of 2:33.34. Added fact– this time would have been good enough to achieve either a Silver or Bronze medal at any of the EMR Swimming championships over the last four years!
Congratulations to all students who competed at the EMR finals.
Also a big congratulations to Will and Robbie who qualified for the Victorian State Championships which were held at MSAC in Albert Park last Thursday.
We have not had a student compete at State swimming in my 11 years at PRPS, possibly ever in our school’s history, so to have two students qualify in 2026 is a remarkable achievement.
Robbie, coming off breaking the Eastern Metropolitan Regional record in the 50m Breaststroke, swam another PB to finish 2nd place in Victoria with a time of 36.97 seconds.
Will competed in Butterfly, Breaststroke and Freestyle where he finished 2nd, 3rd and 5th respectively.
Congratulations once again to both boys. The whole school community is so proud of your achievements!
Matthew Davey
Physical Education Teacher