Ladies' captain Louisa Herring helped get the 2007 Berks and South Bucks county championships off to a great start for the Evening Post-sponsored Reading Swimming Clubs, leading her team to gold in the senior four x 100 metres freestyle relay at Maidenhead's Magnet Pool.
National Speedo League finalists Bracknell looked favourites on paper, but Herring brought the team home with a storming sub-1.02 final leg, a big personal best time. Zoe Hester led off and Kristina Paige established a lead which Holly Tanner defended.
Paige - beating the one-minute barrier for the first time - and Tanner also recorded PBs for the distance in an inspiring start for coach Graeme Thomas's charges.
Bracknell appeared to have reversed this in the medley relay, Reading fielding an unusual lineup with freestyle and fly specialist Paige in the breaststroke leg and Tanner taking the fly, but a disqualification gave the Reading girls a second gold in a five-second margin over Wycombe.
Reading's A team in the 13 and under girls' relays missed a freestyle medal by one place and placed sixth in their medley, with a very inexperienced Reading B twice twelfth.
Adam Barrett produced Reading's first individual gold of the year as the boys kicked off with the 200m individual medley – two lengths of the pool in each stroke. Barrett's 2.21.50 won the 14 years age group by more than two seconds, and Chris Boyce, whose birth date makes him one of the group's youngest competitors, placed an excellent fourth.
Alex Cawthorne, outstanding in Reading's Thames Valley Junior League team this season, was second 10-and-under – with a further year in the same age group to come. Junior captain Barnaby Kempster missed a medal one year up by one place, while distance freestyle specialist Garry Dixon claimed the overall championship bronze. Top breaststroker York Kloeppel was fifth overall and Callum Willcox third in the 13 years group.
The girls' first individual swim was the 100 back, and after Ellie Wood picked up a bronze in the 12s' group (1.14.67), El Cawthorne went one better for the 13's' silver in 1.12.50.
Zoe Hester stormed the 15/16 age group in a record 1.03.19, with Naomi Herring securing an excellent age group bronze in a PB 1.08.01. With finals swum the only in 100m events, Hester, Herring, and Tanner all qualified. Reading Junior Sports Personality of the Year Hester lifted the trophy, cutting the time by a further 0.04, with Herring an outstanding fifth and Tanner seventh.
York Kloeppel was another to make the overall championship rostrum. After qualifying third fastest for the 100 breaststroke final, he pipped Bracknell's Jamie Shields by just 0.02 to take the silver behind Andrew Willis, also of Bracknell.
The age-group competition featured an excellent win for Callum Willcox, by just 0.04 over Wycombe's Sam Straughan, and a second silver for Alex Cawthorne.
The first boys' backstroke event was over 200 metres, and saw another comfortable age group win for Barrett, in 2.14.89. There was a bronze this time for Cawthorne and another third place for Kempster, and Markus Orgill was fifth in the 15/16 category.
Barrett's time was beaten by only four much older boys in the overall field of over 60, including Dixon, fourth overall in 2.14.45.
Kristina Paige, as well as her outstanding contribution to the relay golds, starred in sprints over 50 m in both freestyle and butterfly. Paige took the 50 free final in 27.82 and just missed out to Bracknell's Emma Boret in the 50 fly.
The older girl took a great race by 30.02 to 30.20, with Maidenhead's Alice Gent also well inside 31 seconds.
The 50 free also produced an excellent sixth spot in the final for Amy Kunicki, and the 50 fly a first ever championship final for Ellie Wood, eighth but conceding two years to the next youngest finalists.
Paige was confident the 50 fly would have been even closer had the final not been swum immediately after a tough 200 free heat – where she had a narrow margin over training partner Hester as the pair claimed the top two slots in their age group. Rachael Mills took a bronze in the 13s group, where Frankie Wilkins was fifth and El Cawthorne sixth, and Ellie Wood was one place outside the medals in her year.
Barrett continued his great meet with yet another age group gold, this time in the 100 fly (1.04.41). Alex Macarthur's 1.02.94 won the 15/16 bronze and also put him into the overall final for an eventual fifth place in a marginally quicker time.
Reading were also in the medals in a tough 400 IM. Ellie Wood had a margin of a second over the 16 lengths in winning the 12s' group in an excellent 5.32.31,Frankie Wilkins took a comfortable second in her year, and Tanner was runner-up overall to Bracknell's outstanding Boret.
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