CASA take First Round of Junior League by Storm

CASA’s ‘A’ Team swimmers took to the water for the first round of the Lincs Junior League which was held at Yarborough Leisure Centre in Lincoln on Saturday February 16^th.

Fresh from a close battle with Lincoln Vulcan’s in last season’s competition the CASA swimmers and coaches were full of optimism that they can become Lincolnshire’s Premier Junior side this season.

In their first outing the swimmers were not to disappoint swimming against CLP ‘A’ & ‘B’ Team, South Lincs SC, Grantham SC & Trenton Dolphins SC. Out of the 49 events they won an incredible 29 events coming second in a further 9 events only coming outside the top three places in 6 events.

The first 8 events were all relays with CASA taking six 1^st places and coming second in the other 2 relays, out of the 17 relay events CASA only came outside the top 2 on 2 occasion’s highlighting why the joint venture between CADS & Scunthorpe Anchor is working so well.

By the time the individual events were started CASA were already commanding a 16 point lead over their closest rivals CLP ‘A’ and were not to look back after this point.

Out of the next 32 individual events the swimmers produced 19 Personal Best times and winning 17 of the events. Going into the last nine events (all relays) the teams managed six wins including winning the Cannon relay, this is where one boy and one girl from each age group race for the team and at the conclusion of this race CASA got the biggest cheer of the evening from all the swimmers and parents.

This concluded a great night’s racing where the team spirit was excellent and all swimmers coaches and parents bonded to produce another great result for CASA.

Also competing in the same competition on the same day at Riddings Leisure Centre in Scunthorpe were CASA ‘B’ Team.

Up against some tough opposition in Lincoln Vulcan’s ‘A’ & ‘B’ Teams, Louth Dolphins & Grimsby Santa Marina the ‘B’ team came away and excellent third place only getting beaten by Lincoln Vulcan’s ‘A’ Team & Louth Dolphins and in the process giving themselves an excellent chance of making this years final.

Out of the 49 events CASA ‘B’ managed to secure 4 1^st Places and 15 2^nd Places which contributed to the ‘B’ Team only finishing third to Louth by 19 points. Had the team not had three disqualifications the result could have been a lot different.

CADS Chief Coach Nathan Hilton said: “What a great weekend for CASA the ‘A’ & ‘B’ teams were both outstanding giving themselves a great chance of both making this years final in September. There were too many outstanding swims in both galas to mention and we showed why we have the joint venture going with Scunthorpe Anchor as at present our strength in depth is even greater than Lincoln Vulcan’s and hopefully when we come up against there ‘A’ in the final we will give them a real close run this year.

The team spirit is growing all the time and the swimmers, coaches and parents are all doing a great job which is contributing to the great results we are getting. It is a testament to the hard work that is going in from all of the swimmers.”

Final points from the ‘A’ team gala were:

CASA A –255

CLP A – 206

South Lincs – 195

Grantham- 151

Trenton Dolphins-139

CLP B –62

Final points from the ‘B’ team gala were:

LVSC A - 270

Louth Dolphins - 187

CASA B - 168

LVSC B - 129

Grimsby Santa Marina – 108

The second round of the competition takes place on Saturday 17^th May at venues to be decided.