Worcester’s junior “B” team finished off an excellent 2014/15 season in style with a highly creditable 5th place in the Division 3 Final of the Nuneaton & District Junior League, the most prestigious competition for 12 & under swimmers in the West Midlands.
With the “A” team narrowly missing out on the Division 1 Final, all eyes were on the “B” team swimmers as they faced strong competition from across the Region.
The Worcester swimmers just edged out the other “B” team in the Final, beating Stourbridge by a mere 3 points but they pushed the other clubs’ “A” squads very hard too… an excellent team performance. The final points were Dove Valley 204, Droitwich 194, Bromsgrove 183, Telford 162, Worcester “B” 148 and Stourbridge “B” 145.
Head Coach Mark Stowe was delighted with the performance: “It was always going to be challenging but I thought the swimmers responded brilliantly. Their skills were very good and they raced tough. Team spirit was excellent and they really enjoyed themselves”.
Unsurprisingly, first places were hard to come by but as usual, Worcester excelled in the older age groups, especially in the 12/under Girls events.
Imogen Rhodes and Josie Armstrong stormed to brilliant victories in the 50m Backstroke and Butterfly, recording excellent times of 35.72 and 34.56 respectively. Grace Dieppe impressed but had to settle for a close 2nd in the Freestyle before teaming up with Abigail Moore, Elizabeth Rhoden and Imogen/Josie to record comfortable first place finishes in both the Medley and Freestyle Relays.
The only other victory came in the age group below (11/u), Rosie Wikeley smashing her Personal Best in the 50m Breaststroke with 45.91 to win by almost 2 seconds.
There were many other fine swims though… with notably, the 2nd place finishes from Zebedee Weston (10/u 50m Freestyle), Ben Harle (11/u 50m Breaststroke) and Lottie Martin (11/u 50m Freestyle) catching the eye.
However, above all, this was a real team effort with every swimmer in the squad who had competed in rounds 1-3 turning out for the Club in the Final and contributing fully to the overall success.
The full team was: Olivia Eggleton, India Sherwood, Molly Davey, Grace Ciancio, Hannah Alfrink, Alice Kearley, Freya Dyson, Rosie Stanley, Daniella Moore, Cyra Mead, Jaza Lone, Niamh Murphy, Lottie Martin, Amelia Ciancio, Abigail Knight, Rosie Wikeley, Emma Baker, Elizabeth Rhoden, Imogen Rhodes, Josie Armstrong, Grace Dieppe, Abigail Moore, Joshua Irvine, Luke Irish, Edward Perkin, Oscar Kilvington, Nathan Redfern, Freddie Caldwell, Zebedee Weston, Corey McNally, Harvey Cross, Ben Harle, Shane Mahon, Daniel Kearley, Ben Thorpe, Baeli Fern, Sam Doyle, Edward Owen.