She is a member of the Osca squad coached by Gennadiy Labara and demonstrated the value of the hard training by winning three bronze medals at the New Zealand summer short course championships in Christchurch last weekend.
She was the leading light for the Neptune club which finished third - the first South Island club - in the interclub teams event.
The Osca squad is a continuation of the Moana Pool squad which was coached by the late Duncan Laing for more than 40 years.
Otago swimming has been dominated by coach Andy Adair's Waves club since the retirement of Laing.
This was the first time it had been beaten by another Otago club in a national event.
It was a remarkable performance because Neptune had a team of only six swimmers who won nine medals and set nine Otago records.
Kenneally (17), who has been swimming competitively for five years, is in the New Zealand team for the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney from January 14-17 in the 200m and 400m individual medley and the 100m and 200m breaststroke.
"It will be a good opportunity to test myself against swimmers from other countries and not not just Australians."
Kenneally left Taieri College at the end of the school year and will begin her studies in physical education and food science at the University of Otago next year.
Kenneally won bronze medals in the 50m breaststroke (32.92sec), 100m breaststroke (1min 11.08sec) and 200m breaststroke (2min 32.88sec) in Christchurch - all personal best times.
The significant performance came in the 200m breaststroke when she broke a five-year-old Otago open women's record in both the heat and final.
Her heat time was 2min 33.95sec.
The record had been held by 2002 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Liz van Welie. Kenneally also won three breaststroke medals - gold in the 200m, silver in the 100m and bronze in the 50m - at the national age group championships this year.
She won eight gold medals at the Otago championships and a dozen medals in the Otago and South Island secondary schools championships, where she set records for the Otago 50m breaststroke and the South Island 100m breaststroke and 400m individual medley. Kenneally represented New Zealand in the transtasman series in Australia, with her best performance in the final meeting when she swam a personal best short course time of 2min 37sec in finishing third.
Other Neptune club swimmers to win medals in Christchurch were Matthew Glassford and Nick Tyrrell.
Glassford (18) won bronze medals in the 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke and the 400m medley relay.
Tyrrell (17) won a silver medal in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay and a bronze medal in the 4 x 100m medley relay.
There were also fine performances by younger members of the Osca squad who broke Otago age group records in the open competition.
Frances Newbold (15) broke her own record for the girls aged 15 and open women in the 50m butterfly (28.73sec) and her age group record in the 100m butterfly (1min 04.37sec).
Emily Poon broke her own record for a 13-year-old girl in the 200m freestyle (2min 09.34sec).
Lil Clearwater (15) broke her own record for a 15-year-old in the 200m backstroke in her heat and the final with a time of 2min 18.28sec.
It also broke the open women's record set by Nicole Sutherland (Neptune) in 2004.
