Date Created: Tue 23rd Feb 2010
On Saturday 20th February, both Worcester Swimming Club's "A" & "B" teams travelled to Halesowen to compete in the Second Round of the Winter League.
Missing several key swimmers, notably in the usually strong Girls 15 & under age group, the Club struggled a tad with the "A" team finishing well behind reigning League champions Halesowen and the "B" team narrowly failing to beat Redditch for the third "A" Final spot.
The final points were: Halesowen "A" 214, Worcester "A" 177, Redditch 142, Worcester "B" 128, Orion 92, Stourbridge "B" 85.
There were may fine performances, albeit not all in a winning cause - with in particular Nixie Turner, Kate Lovesey and Helen Rimell each swimming enough events for two swimmers, both in their own & higher age groups. Their efforts and those of their older team mates, in particular Alice O'Toole, Cara Lee, Tabitha Monkhouse, Sam Allen & Eloise van Vuren - all for the cause of the team - earned great praise from Head Coach Mark Stowe. He said: "With so many swimmers absent, I was delighted with the team spirit. It was great to see swimmers willing to step up and take on additional responsibility".
Victories were few & far between with Dan Adair stealing the show, notching up an impressive brace of first places in the 15/U Backstroke and Butterfly events.
Younger brother Mike was not to be outdone, winning the 13/U Backstroke easily - whilst Tabby Monkhouse (15/U Breaststroke) and Ivo Mandradzhiyski (Open Freestyle) also recorded comfortable wins.
In the 11/U age group, Josh Smallman showed his enormous potential, winning an extremely close Breaststroke race - while in the 15/U age group, Alice O'Toole (fresh from a blistering 1.11.02 in her own 13/U age group) proved a class act, storming to another victory in the Backstroke.
There were many strong second places though those of Greg Everest (Breaststroke) and Luke McCluskey (Freestyle) in the 15/U events were amongst the most creditable - they and 13-year old team mate Jack Weston having only got back from skiing trips that very day!
In the Open age group, both Sergey Mandradzhiyski (Butterfly & Backstroke) and Eloise van Vuren (Butterfly & Freestyle) proved great role models earning important points for the team with two 2nd places each - as did James Marsh in the 13/U Breaststroke & Butterfly, his continuing improvement evidenced by yet more Personal Best times.
Josh Lane was in sparking form - able to swim in the same age group for the next two years, he finished second in the 11/U Freestyle, a mere 0.07 seconds behind the winner.
Team Captain Hollie Horton (Open Backstroke), Jonathan Edwards (15/U Backstroke), Caitlin Clark (15/U Backstroke), Tabby Monkhouse (15/U Butterfly), Matthew Rochell (13/U Backstroke), Caitlin Adair (11/U Breaststroke) and Tazmin Pugh (11/U Butterfly) all picked up valuable second places whilst Alex Steenson's third in the 13/U Butterfly was "swim of the night", a great PB from a rapidly improving athlete.