Abbey Freeman, Sophie Payne, Isla Kirk and Somaiya Harriden won a thrilling under-20 4x50m freestyle relay at the School Sport Victoria Secondary Swimming State Championships, claiming gold one-hundredth of a second ahead of Maribyrnong College.

The Melburnians led at every turn but 17-year-old Harriden swam a sensational anchor leg in lane four to bring it home for Wodonga.

"We're absolutely thrilled," WSSC sports co-ordinator Jess Harris said.

"To see the Wodonga Senior Secondary College name up in first position and to see the girls on the podium was really exciting.

"In my 10-year career as a PE teacher, I've never seen a regional school do that before.

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"For the girls, it was about overcoming the barrier of being a regional school.

"We don't have as much access to facilities as the metro schools do, and Maribynong is a specialist sports high school, so to see a regional team get up on them was pretty exciting.

"The girls train with local clubs and we only have access to a 50-metre pool for six months of the year so it's a huge achievement."

Harriden touched the wall for Wodonga in 1:59.52.

"To see them break two minutes was really exciting," Harris said.

"They broke the record at the level before state and I knew they had a really good chance.

"We had lots of people watching live at school,cheering the girls on."

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