[by Harry Wild and Phil Tanner]
Reading Swimming Club's B team went into the final round of the Speedo League at Central Pool knowing that three of the six teams in would be relegated from Division 1 of the southern section. Realistically, Reading's target was to avoid the wooden spoon by beating the only other second string at the meet, North Hampshire rivals Rushmoor Royals B.
It was nip and tuck between the two, with the home team having the edge early on but needing to overhaul a sizeable margin going into the final relays before claiming fifth spot.
Open age group
As expected, the bulk of Reading's points came in the older age groups. The evening's two top swims came in the 100 butterfly, with wins in Reading's unfavoured outside lane for both Leanne Haas and Daniel John. Haas recorded 1.11.80, while Loughborough student John put in a blistering 1.03.10 for one of the meet's biggest winning margins.
Louisa Herring and David Thomas both picked up backstroke second places. The ladies' open six-leg relay team of Haas, Herring, Amy Thomas, Beth Ayerst, Vanessa Wood and Louise Gillat finished second, while the boys' sextet of Thomas, John, Kristian Statham, Chris Dunkley, Lewis Ross and Andrew Chandler finished third. Both four-leg medley teams were just touched out of second places in very exciting races.
Under 16
Three strong second places came from Chris Dunkley (100 backstroke in 1.12.32) Markus Orgill (fly in 1.10.67) and Max Hurcombe (breaststroke, 1.24.24). Hannah Field put in the best girls' individual swim with a breaststroke third-place in a PB of 1.26.10. The boys' relay team of Dunkley, Orgill, Matt Zadrozny and Drew Samimi-Mawby swam very close second places in both freestyle and medley, while the girls (Grace Waldron, Field, Wood and Gillatt) placed third and fourth, again in very tight finishes.
Under 14
Eleanor Cawthorne was the star of this group with PBs in both backstroke and fly and third place in the former. Conor Sandell, fourth in the 100 free, took two seconds off his PB, with smaller PBs in various events from James Tichband, Zoe Knott and Natalia Ciecierska-Holmes. A special mention to for Rebecca Turner, who answered a late phone call to help out the team and produced gutsy swims in both relays.
Under 12
No high placings, but in this tough age group many Reading swimmers improved on their swims in rounds one and two. Coach Harry Wild singled out both fly swimmers, Georgia O'Brien and Jeremy Spanu, who recorded PBs by six and five seconds respectively, as well as Beth Staley, Joe Statham and Niko Ciecierski-Holmes. Natalie Cawthorne, who came along to support her sister, found herself called up for both relay teams and helped the team to useful points.
Final scores:
Reading team:
Beth Ayerst, Eleanor Cawthorne, Natalie Cawthorne, Natalia Ciecierska-Holmes, Julia Domnick, Hannah Field, Louise Gillatt, Leanne Haas, Louisa Herring, Zoe Knott, Georgia O'Brien, Lisa O'Brien Beth Staley, Amy Thomas, Rebecca Turner, Grace Waldron, Vanessa Wood
Joe Burgoyne, Andrew Chandler, Niko Ciecierski-Holmes, Chris Dunkley, George Feast, Max Hurcombe, Daniel John, Markus Orgill, Jason Passmore, Lewis Ross Drew Samimi-Mawby, Conor Sandell, Jeremy Spanu, Joe Statham, Kristian Statham, James Tichband, Joe Tichband, David Thomas, Matt Zadrozny.
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