Mariette Devereux (St Hilda's) competes in the girls' 200m short course freestyle race on Saturday during the South Island Secondary Schools Championships, held at Moana Pool in Dunedin at the weekend. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.

The Christchurch earthquake turned Andrew Trembath's life upside down.

His family shifted to Dunedin, he was enrolled into a new school and had to make new friends.

He still had his swimming and surf life-saving. But he had to get used to it in a new environment and under strict Eastern European coach Gennadiy Labara.

Trembath has flourished since coming South and he is now one of the most promising younger swimmers in the country.

Next month he will represent New Zealand in swimming for the first time at the Junior Pan Pacs in Hawaii.

Life has moved into the fast lane for Trembath (17) since his selection in the New Zealand team.

He has attended several training camps in Auckland with his coach and last week was at a training camp at Chandler University, in Brisbane.

Trembath has had racing experience against top Australians while still in heavy training.

He demonstrated his newfound confidence at the South Island secondary schools championships at Moana Pool at the weekend.

The Otago Boys' High School pupil won six senior boys titles. It could have been eight but he returned home from Brisbane with an injured knee and could not swim the breaststroke.

This forced him to withdraw from the 200m and 400m individual medley events.

His specialty event is the 100m backstroke, the event that qualified him for the Pan Pacs.

At Moana Pool at the weekend he won the 50m (26.32sec), 100m (57.43sec) and 200m (2min 07.46sec) backstroke races.

His form in the butterfly was impressive - he moved through the water like a dolphin when he won the 100m in 58.44sec.

His other two South Island titles came in the 100m (52.09sec) and 200m (1min 54.84sec) freestyle.

The best female swimmer was Aleisha Ruske (St Hilda's), also a member of the Labara training squad, who won six junior girls events.

She won the 50m (27.44sec), 100m (57.87sec) and 200m (2min 06.48sec) freestyle, the 50m (29.34sec), 100m (1min 04.46sec) and 200m (2min 27.55sec) butterfly.

Her best performance was the 100m butterfly when she swam a personal best short course time.

A feature of the championship was the form of members of Labara's Moana Pool squad.

Tame Govaerts (Kings) won five junior boys events. He won the 50m (30.45sec) and 100m (1min 12.21sec) breaststroke and the 50m (25.33sec), 100m (54.09sec) freestyle and the 50m backstroke (29.54sec).

Han Zhang (John McGlashan) won four senior boys titles - 50m (30.76sec), 100m (1min 07.04sec) and 200m (2min 22.48sec) breaststroke and the 200m individual medley (2min 12.36sec).

Devon Familton (Columba) also won four titles in the junior girls grade 50m (31.60sec) and 100m (1min 18.88sec) breaststroke), 100m (1min 07.17sec) butterfly and 100m (1min 07.94sec) backstroke.

There were 130 swimmers from 45 South Island schools competing in the two-day event.