The Yeronga Yam Salads entered the arena for one final day. And wasn’t it a fibrous morning for the Yams; Mia kicked off the 50 breaststroke by earning her way into a final tonight! Layla rounded out her States campaign with a different stroke (weird). The fossil was back and by god did he finish in style, a PB and a national qualifying time!! Epic work (Macca, that is—hard to keep track with all these oldies). Oscar and Archie both spun out some rather high ratings—as they often do—but a good effort nonetheless!

In what a brutal day to finish on for Maggie, who had a gruelling 400 IM as her first event. She swam exactly to Svet’s race plan and amazingly was still smiling after it—only one event to go, Mags!

Vickiey put together a great heat swim in the 100 free and goes through tonight ranked numero uno….game on to round it out!!

The biggest event of the bromance’s program fell to the last day. We have been prepping for this event since August, most importantly mentally preparing to be tough on day 7. To make this final was always going to be cutthroat; less than a second separated 8th to 12th. Lewis took the race out hard, slipping under the minute exactly as we’ve been practicing, while Archie hung back, trusting his newfound race strategies from earlier in the week. Both boys built through the 3rd 50 and then all hell broke loose on the last 50, kicking up more white water than a speed boat mowing down the pool. Archie: BOOM, national qualifying time number 3 and 8th in the final. Lewis: PB…but narrowly missing the final and a reserve tonight. Head up, Lew, cause we have an 800 free final later!!

THEN came the 100 Backstrokes, with Maggie BACKing up her 400 IM with a swift swim beside bestie Alex A, whose 3 second PB scored her a spot in tonight’s final. A+ tough. Almost as tough as our Bandit, finishing off Yeronga Park’s States heats for 2025 in style—with a PB to toss into our Yam Salad 🥗🍠

And here we are. The final night of finals. Let’s set the scene: golden hour, summer seeping into the grandstands, Mia coming down 20 minutes early for her warmup, Alex still asleep until 30 minutes before her race, Vicki doing Vicki things and our bromance bringing in groupies.

Mia locked in and finessed her dive, ready to own this final. And own it she did. From starting the week in freak out mode, then getting sick, then still coming in to swim her 100, it is a testament to her growing maturity as a swimmer that she was able to turn up tonight, swim a PB AND claim her first ever State medal, finishing second🥈

Meanwhile, Lewis is praying someone withdraws from the 200 free so he can continue the bromance. Although shout-out to Toby and Luka for showing up in an attempt to fill that void in Lewis’s heart. The 800 is a tough event and to do it on your last night, as race number 15, is mind-blowing—and a credit to Lewis. It was a valiant swim; finishing 6th in the state is not a bad way to finish your campaign.

Vicki’s 100 free final was next. Vicky delivered on this morning’s learnings and held her breathing rhythm, with plenty to take back to training leading into February’s world para swim meet. Great hit-out, Vicky, after an eventful week.

For Archie this is race number 14. We’ve got everything we came for and more; 3 finals, 3 national qualifying times, and 7 PBs. This is one of those swims where you can do what you want with no pressure and go chasing for something amazing. If there’s anything we can count on Archie for, it’s delivering a show. He was out in a 58 (2 seconds quicker than this morning)…and then the weight of this massive week fell. Nevertheless, he rallied and held on til the very end, squeezing out every ounce of willpower, hurried along by soulmate Lewis on deck, and groupies Toby and Luka in the stands. He came out of the race spooning applesauce into his mouth (meant to save that for the Yam Salad later, buddy, but okay), proud of his epic efforts nonetheless. Aura.

Our final race of the Championships: our little 12 year old sprinter!! Yes, she’s won the battle for 2025–I’ll call her a sprinter. Only having joined our program in September, she has stepped in with our audacious and bubbly state group like she’s been here forever. And what a way to round out her first state champs. 3 finals 1 medal and 6 PB’s!!

So to round out the week, you guessed it! Some data. We had 52 Pb’s, 36 Top 20’s, 14 finals (top 10’s), 9 medals and 5 national qualifying athletes!!!

It’s great to see our performance lift. Double the amount of finals compared to 2024 and 8 more medals. Thank you to Felipe for your support and wisdom abroad, Mitch for making the effort to come out every day and of course Svet who none of this would be possible without! Enjoy your trip, you’ve earnt it! See you all in 2026!