Thirteen year-old Joe Statham and Olivia Paige, 11, stood out for Reading as a group of mainly young swimmers tackled Ealing SC's B/C graded meet at the Gurnell Pool.
The meet was a first ever competition for Chloe Parker and a first swim away from Central Pool for several others, with one or two more tackling swims they hadn't done before in competition.
Statham produced Reading's only win in a tightly contested C-grade 50 freestyle, clocking 36.04 with swimmers from Canvey and Slough also well inside 37 seconds in a field of 17. The younger brother of County Squad swimmer Kristian also collected fifth spots in the 100 IM and 50 fly and sixth in his 50 breaststroke.
Paige's top effort as she follows in the footsteps of sister Kristina, one of Reading's best youth swimmers, brought a 50 fly silver in 48.21 and a 50 freestyle bronze in 41.67, improving her entry time by three seconds, and she rounded off a productive day with sixth in her 50 backstroke.
Ruaridh Sheppard (10) and Jodhvir Sidhu (11) featured in a close finish in their 50 free. Both entered on 47 seconds, Sheppard just got the touch in 42.77 to Sidhu's 42.84 as they finished 10th and 11th in their two-year age category.
Jenny Martin, 12, was a very solid fifth out of 21 in her 100m IM, improving an entry time of 1.51 to 1.34.50, with Olivia Wall in the same age group – second slowest on paper – improving massively from 2.06 to 1.44.28 and moving up the seeding to 14th.
Julia Domnick, 13, and 12-year-old Harry Nash also recorded top-10 places in big PB times. Domnick cut her 50 breaststroke best from 59.63 to 48.66 in eighth place, and Nash placed seventh in his 100 IM some 12 seconds inside his entry time.