The National Arena Swimming League (East Midlands) Round 1

 

 

 

Saturday 10th October saw Cleethorpes & Scunthorpe Aquatics (CASA) made their assault on this year National Arena Swimming League

 

The National Swimming League, having just secured new sponsorship from swimwear manufacture Arena, is a national competition with teams taking part in regional leagues across the country all on the same dates in October, November and December. The winners of each region compete in a national final in an attempt to be crowned the best team in the country.

 

CASA had two teams taking part with the ‘A’ team in Division 1 and the ‘B’ team in Division 2.  It was to be a home gala for CASA ‘A’ with the team hosting the event at Grimsby Swimming Pool. Up against stiff opposition in the form of Nottingham Leander, winners of the East Midland league last year.  They put in a strong performance to finish in over all second position, with 7 first place, 14 second places and 8 third places.

 

An exciting gala CASA ‘A' had to wait until event 6 - Boys 13yrs/U 4 x 2 Medley Relay Team for their first win of the night,  with James Burke first in the water on the Backstroke, Josh Jones on the Breaststroke, Callum Gladding on the Butterfly and finally Keiran Skinner with the Freestyle leg of the race. The four boys also went on achieve another 1st in the Freestyle Relay.  For Josh Jones & Kieran Skinner their winning streak continued into their individual events with Josh on top form in 13yrs/U 100M Breaststroke also securing a new personnel best time and Keiran taking the laurels and winning the 13/U 100M Backstroke taking more than 3 seconds off his previous best time.  The Boys 11/U Medley Team of Jack Cowling, Ryan Johnson, Jack Newton and Scott Zimmerman won their race by a clear margin.  CASA ‘A’ only other individual wins came in the 15yrs/U 100 Butterfly with Thomas Paine producing an excellent swim in a new personnel best time and Girls 15/U 100M Breaststroke with Lauren York the only CASA girl to take top spot on the night.


There were many excellent swims from the CASA ‘A’ swimmers during the evening, however special mention should go to Girls 11/U Freestyle Team of Olivia Sullivan, Bryony Bower, Sophie Cragg and Holly Williams, although the girls had to settle for second place behind Notts Leander they gave their all to finish with a 9 second lead on the 3rd place team!

Other team events swimmers just missed out on that elusive first place were

Girls 11yrs 4 x 2 Medley Relay: O Sullivan, C Bower, H Williams, S Cragg

Girls 15/U 4 x 2 Medley Relay: N Sharman, L York, K Over, F Stanford

Ladies Open 4 x 2 Medley Relay: C Steels, L York, J Kirk, S Gladding

Ladies Open 6 x 2 Freestyle Relay: J Kirk, F Stanford, K Over, L York, S Gladding, C Steels

 

Individual Second places

Boys 11yrs 50 Backstroke: Jack Cowling (Pb)

Girls 11yrs 50 Butterfly: Holly Williams

Girls 11yrs 50 Breaststroke: Olivia Sullivan (Pb)

Boys 13yrs 100 Butterfly: Callum Galdding (Pb)

Boys 15/U 100 Freestyle: Thomas Paine

Open 100M Breaststroke: Lauren York

Girls 11 yrs 50M Freestyle: Sophie Cragg (Pb)

Boys 13yrs 100 Freestyle : Keiran Skinner (Pb)

 

The swimmers achieved a staggering 52 new best times on the night with the Final Score :

Nottingham Leander 239 - CASA ‘A’ 195 - Sherwood Colliery 169 - Louth 159 - Kings Lynn 144 -Deepings 143

 

 

For CASA ‘B’ in their Division 2 fixture, they had no luxury of a home gala, but a long 3 hour bus journey to their meet at Wellingborough.  Despite a number of last minute changes to the team, with a number of swimmers swimming up age groups, the team performed exceptionally well with some great swims and an amazing 57 new best times. The Team amassed 6 first place, 13 second places, and 9 third places

 

11 year old Jessica Brandham secured the teams first win of the night on the 11yrs 50M Backstroke. A couple of events later it was the turn CASA ‘B’ Team member Holly Smith (Pb) to finish in 1st place with an excellent swim in the 13yrs 100 Breaststroke. Also, taking a 1st place for the girls was Ashleigh Fletcher as she won the Ladies Open 100 Freestyle.  On the boys events, Sven Schygiol secured a win in the 11 yrs 50M Breaststroke and with 12yrs old Oliver Webster (Pb) winning the 13 yrs/U 100M Freestyle.  On the relays CASA ‘B’ had a number of close finishes, however only managed to secure one 1st place, well done to the boys 11 yrs 4 x Medley Relay of Nathan Sharman, Sven Schygiol, Nahum Kloss and Keiran Sharman.

 

A host of 2nd place swims were achieved by the swimmers, most notably Michael Dzieweczynski swim in the  Boys 13/U 100M Butterfly were he just missed out on the top spot by a touch, but gave his all in an superb swim to earn himself a new personnel best time, other 2nd place swims were in :

Boys 11/U 50M Backstroke: Nathan Sharman

Boys 13/U 50M Breaststroke: Oliver Webster (Pb)

Boys 15/U 100M Backstroke: Toby Butler

Boys 11/U 50M Butterfly: Sven Schygiol

Boys 13/U 100 Backstroke: Tom Wells (Pb)

Ladies Open 100M Backstroke: Ashleigh Fletcher (Pb)

Boys 15/U 100M Freestyle: Toby Butler (Pb)

Girls 15/U 100M Freestyle: Rhiannon Harber

Boys 11/U 50M Freestyle: Nathan Sharman(Pb)

Girls 11/U 4 x 2 Meldey Relay: Jessica Brandham, Sophie Thompson, Grace Lister, Yasmin Callaghan

Boys 13/U 4 x 2 Medley Relay: Tom Wells, Oliver Webster, Callum Cook, Andres Clavijo

Boys 13/U 4 x 2 Freestyle Relay: Andres Clavijo, Callum Cook, Tom Wells, Oliver Webster

                       

Final Score:

Wellingborough 207 – Coalville 187 – CASA ‘B’ 183 – Market Haborough 170 – Corby – 152 – Aylsham 140

 

Both teams now look forward to Round 2 on Saturday 14th November