Reading Swimming Club County Squad coach Clive Alderson took a small squad to the City of Cambridge meet at Parkside Pool.
The meet included a number of strong university swimmers in the open age category (16 and over) and Reading were well outside the medals, but coach Alderson was pleased with a number of personal best times and season's bests.
Daniel Jackson's 10th-place 100 fly came in a strong group won in just under a minute, with four of the nine ahead of him university swimmers in their 20s.
Jackson's 1.06.78, with Kristian Statham and Lewis Ross second and third in his heat, was within a whisker of his best ever at last summer's Bournemouth Open and over five seconds inside the qualifying mark for the upcoming Berks and South Bucks championships.
Statham had the edge in the trio's private battle in the freestyle events. A near-PB over 50 metres of 27.37 secured him 12th place. Ross's 28.33 was also a county qualifying time and Jackson's 29.07 a PB.
Alice Tourell, 17 – a latecomer to competition at this level and like Statham and Ross a merit award winner at the club's recent awards night – put in Reading's best PB of the meet. Entered in her 100 free on a time of 1.11.78, she lopped off two seconds and stopped the clock in 1.09.64.
Tourell was very close to her PB in the 50 free and again ahead of teammate Louise Tayler-Grint, whose own best swims came in the backstroke events. Tayler-Grint swam 2.51.00 from an entry time of 2.50.63 over 200 metres and 1.20.29 over 100, where her PB is 1.20.12.
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