Several swimmers from the Evening Post-sponsored Reading Swimming Club hit the heights as the 2007 Berks and South Bucks county championships continued at Maidenhead's Magnet Pool on Saturday.
Zoe Hester shattered a quarter-century-old record in the 200 backstroke, which also saw a first ever senior championship medal for Naomi Herring. Garry Dixon, 2006 national 1500 freestyle champion in his year, starred over 400 metres, with York Kloeppel another overall champion. Adam Barrett impressed across the whole range of events, beating numerous much older swimmers in the overall classification as well as dominating his age group.
Dixon, just turned 17, held off a challenge from another top youth swimmer at national level, Bracknell's Chris Rowley, to win the 400 free overall championship in 4.04.52. Barrett's 4.14.54 not only won his year by almost 17 seconds from Windsor's Jonathan Naish, but placed him fifth in the overall field of almost 70.
Reading also had a medallist in the 11s age group, junior captain Barnaby Kempster a comfortable second, while Kloeppel and Alex Macarthur placed 10th and 11th across all age groups.
The men's relay team – Dixon, Kloeppel, Macarthur and Russel Korting - didn't match the ladies' double gold in round one, but claimed two respectable third places early in the day.
The boys' 14 and under quartet of Barrett, Chris Boyce, Callum Willcox and Conor Sandell placed third in the freestyle but came good for gold in the medley in 4.27.89, a comfortable margin over Wycombe and Windsor with the rest well back.
Reading "B" (Kempster, David Mills, Jason Passmore and James Tichband) improved from ninth in the freestyle to sixth in the medley.
The first individual medals for coach Graeme Thomas's squad came via the girls' 200 IM - the overall bronze and an age group silver for Hester and a further third from 13-year-old Frankie Wilkins, with Ellie Wood (12) and Rachael Mills (13) both missing out by one place.
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The day's second session kicked off with the usual big field for the heats of the boys' 100 free. Dixon placed second overall to Windsor's Mark Harris, heading four more Windsor boys, and Macarthur and Kloeppel claimed the last two places in the eight-lane final, making it a two-club affair. There Dixon slipped one place to third, Macarthur and Kloeppel repeating their placings seven and eight.
Age group medals were decided on heats alone, and Barrett suffered a rare reverse as third-ranked 14-year-old. Kempster took an excellent silver and Alex Cawthorne, in great breaststroke form the previous week, was third 10-and-under – and has a further season to come in the same age group.
Macarthur's 56.57 placed him fourth in the 15/16 category, with Chris Boyce also showing well in finishing eighth out of 21 fourteen-year-olds despite being one of the youngest in the group.
The ladies' 200 back saw Hester claim her second gold in the stroke this year, by a huge margin of more than 12 seconds in a time of 2.11.15. Subject to ratification, this obliterated a county record which had stood since 1980 by some five seconds
Naomi Herring's PB of 2.23.57 got her within a whisker of the silver as she separated Bracknell pair Alexandra Leonard and Rebecca McCutcheon, with just over half a second covering all three. With Leonard winning the 14s, Hester and Herring claimed gold and silver in the 15/16 group.
El Cawthorne looks like a swimmer who will be pushing these times in due course, and a four-second PB of 2.32.76 claimed the silver in the 13s group.
Barrett produced an astonishing winning margin in the 200 butterfly. His time of 2.16.03 beat the qualifying standard for the summer's national age-group championships by almost four seconds and the runner-up in his year by 24. It also put him on the senior championship rostrum in third place, while Macarthur was runner-up in his year and fourth overall.
Issy Keenan is making big strides in breaststroke events in particular in the 12s group – in the wake of sister Beth, one of Reading's top senior breaststrokers a few years ago. She went into the meet with a 100m PB above 1.28 and slashed it by three seconds for a brilliant silver in 1.25.10. Ellie Wood placed fourth in their year.
Rachael Mills's recent hard work on one of her lesser strokes paid off with the 13s' bronze, and Zoe Clark, in her first season at county level, was a strong fifth one year up in a two-second PB.
Clark was within one place of a medal over 200 metres, with Frankie Wilkins Reading's best with a silver, Wood taking a bronze, Mills fourth and Keenan and Georgie Wilkins fifth and sixth.
Saturday's breaststroke event in the male programme was the 50m sprint, which yielded another trophy for Reading. York Kloeppel qualified fastest for the final in 31.76 and cut this substantially to 31.09, holding off Bracknell pair Andrew Willis and Jamie Shields. In the age group programme, the top swims were a silver for Alex Cawthorne and a bronze for Willcox.
The girls' 100 fly closed proceedings and included a rare clean sweep as Kristina Paige, Hester and Amy Kunicki claimed all the medals in the 15s group.
Wood was an age group winner in 1.11.07 and a brilliant fourth overall as by far the overall finalist. There Paige cut her heat time by over a second to 1.05.57 but had to settle for second behind Bracknell's Emma Boret.