CASA in National League Final

The local swimming stars of CASA continued their impressive form by reaching the final of the East Midlands section of the National Swimming League for the first time in their history. This capped the most successful season the club has known and followed on from winning the Junior Lincs League in September for the first time and going on to represent the County at the North of England final.

National Swimming League galas include boys and girls Aged 11 yrs, 13 yrs, 15 yrs and Open age group and the final was contested by the top six clubs in the East Midland region based on results in the previous two rounds of Division 1. Up against CASA were Notts Leander, Lincoln Vulcans A, City of Peterborough A, Biggleswade and City of Milton Keynes.

The final was held in the 50m pool at Coventry on the 13^th December and from the off the CASA swimmers knew they were up against it recording two 5th places and a 6^th place in the first three events before the 11yr boys team recorded a creditable 3^rd place in the freestyle relay. The team were immediately under pressure again though with the next six events producing one fourth place, four fifth places and one sixth place.

CASA could have buckled at this point but dug deep to fight all the way to the end and produced a number of top three finishes along the way including wins from Caitlin Bower (11 yrs 50m breaststroke), Oliver Webster (11 yrs 50m breaststroke) and James Burke (11 yrs 50m freestyle).

Overall the club achieved three 1^st places, three 2^nd places, eight 3^rd places, fourteen 4th places, nine 5^th places and eleven 6^th places.

By the end of the night the team finished fifth overall which was a fantastic result in the company of such big and established clubs and showed that CASA can hold their own in the company of some of the best swimming clubs in the country.

CADS Chief Coach Dan Higgon was delighted with the performances of the swimmers and said, “This was a great way to finish the year and gave our team the chance to compete against the best swimmers in the region. By performing so well they have shown they are more than capable of competing at this level and we now have the target to reach the final again next year and improve our position.”

Reflecting on the successful collaboration between CADS and Scunthorpe Anchor he went on to say; “CASA was formed to give our swimmers the chance to swim at the highest level against the biggest clubs and this result, following on from winning the Junior Lincs League, demonstrates that we are achieving that objective.”

Top three finishes came from:

• Boys 11 yrs 4 x 50m freestyle relay – Ryan Catley, James Burke, Charlie Spencer & Oliver Webster – 3rd
• Girls 11 yrs 50m backstroke – Savannah Cheung – 2^nd
• Girls 13 yrs 50m breaststroke – Leah Altoft – 2^nd
• Boys 15 yrs 100m butterfly – Thoma Paine – 3^rd
• Ladies Open backstroke – Charlotte Steels – 3^rd
• Girls 11 yrs 50m breaststoke – Caitlin Bower – 1^st
• Boys 11 yrs 50m breaststroke – Oliver Webster – 1^st
• Girls 13 yrs 100m butterfly – Sophie Long – 3^rd
• Boys 13 yrs 100m butterfly – Callum Gladding – 3^rd
• Ladies Open breaststroke – Lauren York – 3^rd
• Girls 15 yrs 100m breaststroke – Leah Altoft – 3^rd
• Mens Open 100m freestyle – Aisley Leeman – 3^rd
• Boys 11 yrs 4 x 50m Medley relay – Charlie Spencer, Oliver Webster, James Burke, Ryan Catley – 2nd