Fine swims secure Pershore 3rd place
12 Nov 2012
Fine swims secure Pershore 3rd place.
In another great display 27 swimmers from Pershore Swimming Club made a second trip to Rugby for their second round draw in the National Arena League match against Perry Beeches (Birmingham); Luton; Rugby; with Linslade Crusaders (Leighton Buzzard) and Oldbury (Birmingham) being ranked 1st and 2nd from their first round results.
With Chloe Naughton and James Gribble setting the ball rolling with a 4thand 6th place respectively it soon became obvious this round was going to be tough. A 3rdplace soon followed, however, coming from the 11/u girls 4 x 50m freestyle relay team of Amy Weston 35.92, Hannah Simister 36.67, Naomi Marsden 34.24 and Isabella Woodcock 38.33 an improvement of 5 seconds on their previous first round draw. With the 11/u boys taking 1stin their relay comprising Simon Sweatman 30.81, Chris Vizard 35.38, Josh Sharratt 35.24, and William Gearey 33.20, the whole team quickly settled and followed it up with a 3rd and a couple of 2nd places in the ensuing relay races a 3rd place finish recorded by the ladies Open 4 x 50 Medley Relay.
By the time the individual events started Pershore and Rugby clubs were vying for 3rd and 4th places as they would be throughout the whole evening. Improving on his first round time by 3 seconds Simon Sweatman recorded a 1stplace in the 11/u 50m backstroke 38.29 and the full 6pts with a 2ndplace from Chloe Naughton in the Ladies Open (16 & over) 100m butterfly in 1.13.22. The next 1st place came from Tazmin Pugh in the 15/u 100m fly in 1:09.22 going quicker in her own age group in the 13/u 100m fly when recording another 1st place in 1:08.76 a 3 second improvement on her first round the previous month.
The club's top young breast stroke swimmer played her part with Isabella Woodcock taking 2nd in the 11/u 50m race in 45.43 whilst Harry Sykes also took 2nd place in the 15/u 100m freestyle in 1:01.39. Although 10 year old Sweatman had to settle for 4th place in his 50m breast stroke he came back strong in his more favourite event swimming up three years in the 13/u 100m free recording 1:10.27. Naomi Marsden recorded a fine 3rdplace finish in the 11/u freestyle in an improved time of 2 seconds on the previous round in 35.57 with nine year old William Gearey in the same event taking 1st place in 33.91. There was a magnificent third top placing and maximum points for Pugh in the 13/u 100m free in 1:03.23 tying on the same time with 13 year old MollyMiley from Oldbury.
In his best event fourteen year old Sykes took victory in the 15/u 100m breast in a time of 1:18.79 with another 2nd from Naughton in her Open group in the 100m free in 1:06.15. With just the eight remaining relay races left Pershore were lying in equal 3rdplace but with a great 3rd race finish by the 11/u girls Medley team and an improvement by over 8 seconds from their first leg time made up of Marsden 40.22, Woodcock 46.43, Weston 39.76, Simister 37.72, the club began to stage a comeback of podium finishes with another 3rd and four 2ndplace positions the first of these coming from the 13/u boys 4 x 50m freestyle team of Jake Spencer (31.26), Drew Jones (32.92), Owen Leeks (33.81), and Sweatman (31.02) again beating their time from four weeks previous.
The second of these 2nd places came in the girls 15/u Medley Relay team of Katie Sharratt (back 37.82), Elizabeth Vizard (breast 41.40), Pugh (fly 30.69) and Alex Dobell (free 33.47) beating their round one time by a massive 14 seconds. The 15/u boys followed this with another 2nd from Gus Jones (back 34.79), Sykes (breast 34.81), Jake Spencer (fly 34.11) and Owen Leeks (free 31.26) improving on their round one time by 4 seconds.
Naughton (30.90), Helen Annis (31.11) , Cara Lee (31.75), Emma Thompson (31.89) , Ella Spencer (32.61) and Pugh (29.07) brought home another 2nd place in the Ladies Open 6 x 50m free and 3rdplace overall was not only secured but actually catching Linslade Crusaders the Eastern Region champions from Leighton Buzzard. This left Sweatman (30.95), Sykes (28.73), David McManus (29.02), Gus Jones 30.35), Xander Jacques (28.48) and James Gribble (27.47) to complete the last trace and have the results announced..
At the final count Oldbury club took a well deserved 1st place with 224pts, Linslade Crusaders 2ndon 198, Pershore 3rd on 186, Rugby 166, Perry Beeches 142 and Luton on 128. Overall it was a rousing team effort with club members improving, sometimes substantially, in 45 out of the 50 events from their round one results with 30 podium finishes.
Ian P photo