The Neptune star was among a large cohort of Otago swimmers who were outstanding at the South Island championships in Christchurch at the weekend.
Deans swam a personal best of 1min 58.23sec in the women’s 200m freestyle and clocked 4min 08.66sec in the 400m freestyle and 8min 31.76sec in the 800m freestyle to go under the A standard time in all three events for the Pac Pacific Championships, being held in Los Angeles later this year for the first time since 2018.
She also wrapped up the overall women’s 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle South Island titles as the best swimmer across all age-groups.
Otago swimmers returned home with a massive haul of 15 overall titles, 68 medals — comprising 24 gold, 27 silver and 17 bronze — and broke three Otago records across the three days in Christchurch.
Neo Salomonsson broke his own Otago male 17 years record in the men’s 100m butterfly in 54.36sec.
That time also equalled the qualification time for the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in August.
He also won the overall men’s 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly titles.
Fellow Kiwi swimmer Myla Duncan set an Otago females 13 years record in the 50m backstroke with 30.64sec, bettering her time from the heats and Neptune swimmer Lily McGrath set the female 16 years 50m breaststroke record in 33.23sec, surpassing Annabelle Simpson’s record from 2007.
McGrath backed up those performances by winning the 50m and 100m breaststroke overall titles.
Olympian Kane Follows won the overall 200m backstroke title and fellow Aquablack Esme Paterson (both Neptune) won the overall 200m butterfly title.
Emilia Finer (Neptune) claimed the overall 1500m freestyle title.
Kiwi swimmer Alfie Weatherston Harvey had another strong weekend, picking up the overall 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle titles and clubmate Liam Rees secured the overall 200m individual medley title.
