Matthew Glassford (Neptune) was the bright light in the Otago team that disappointed at the New Zealand championships in Auckland last week.
Glassford (20), a member of coach Gennadiy Labara's Osca squad, was the only Otago swimmer to stand on the podium in individual events.
His best performance was in the 200m breaststroke when he won a silver medal in 2min 20.15sec.
Glassford also won bronze medals in the 400m individual medley (4min 32.97sec) and 200m individual medley (2min 07.82sec).
Otago swimmers won eight medals in Auckland - three silver and five bronze.
Otago's reputation was helped by its relay teams that won two silver and three bronze medals.
The best performance in relays came from the Waves men's team of Clive Cox, Troy Balvert, Braden Doyle and Rhys Applegarth that won a silver medal in the men's club 800m freestyle relay in 7min 50.78sec.
The strong North Shore team won the club competition.
Glassford helped Neptune to 10th-equal spot with 34 points.
Waves was 13th equal with 30 points.
The championship showed that Otago swimmers are still two years away from matching the best senior swimmers in the country and making a bid for major teams.
But they did better at the New Zealand age-group championships in Christchurch last month with the best performance coming from Katie Kenneally (Neptune) who won gold medals in the 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medley.
She also won silver medals in 50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke and 400m individual medley.
Waves swimmers Phoebe Williams and Stef Gillespie were the only other Otago competitors to win gold medals at the age-group championships.
Williams won gold in the women's aged 17 and 18 800m in 8min 56.09sec, silver in the 200m backstroke and bronze medals in the 400m individual medley and 200m butterfly.
Gillespie won her gold medal in the women's aged 14 800m in 9min 06.80sec, silver medals in the 400m freestyle and 200m freestyle and a bronze in the 400m individual medley.
Bronze medals were won by Waves swimmers Adam Simpson, Braden Doyle and Phoebe O'Leary.
The Neptune women's 16 years and over team of Kate Godfrey, Kenneally, Francis Newbold and Lil Clearwater won a silver medal in the 4 x 50m medley relay.
In the 4 x 50m freestyle relay, the Neptune team of Kenneally, Glendene Rout, Godfrey and Clearwater won the bronze medal.
Other Neptune swimmers to win age-group medals were Rebecca Thom (silver in 200m breaststroke), Emily Poon (silver in 800m freestyle) and Glendene Rout (bronze in 50m freestyle).
The top performer for Neptune in the national division 2 championships at Wellington was Phillip Baxter with a gold medal in the 200m in the 200m breaststroke and bronze in the 200m butterfly.
Sam Armstrong won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle.
