With almost 50 clubs represented, the Evening Post-sponsored Reading Swimming Club's annual Easter Open attracted bigger fields than for several years to Central Pool.
Good Friday kicked off as usual with a mixture of 50 metre sprints and long-distance freestyles over 1500 and 800 metres.
Ealing SC - warming up for the finals of the National Speedo League - sent a strong squad and top senior sprinters Jenna Turner and Holly Mills confirmed their seeding with first and second in the 50 free, home swimmer Kristina Paige (15) third.
The male 50 also yielded a winner from Ealing in Charles Turner, 22, heading home the hosts' Matt Sandell and Bath University's Daniel Hester, all three comfortably inside 24 seconds.
Reading's Garry Dixon could afford to cruise some 50 seconds outside his 1500 PB and still take the top prize, with the most impressive performance in the male distance programme probably coming from Windsor's Stefan Wuestner who placed second to Dixon in the longer event but also swam the 800 some 10 seconds inside his entry time in 9.05.
Catching the eye in the age group programme, Barnaby Kempster (11) slashed his PB in the 800 to 10.09.04, and James Tichband broke the 10 minute barrier for the first time to take the 13 years bronze.
Among the ladies, Hillingdon's Paula Wood - a top-flight international open water swimmer who has dominated the distance events at the meet for several years - posted the fastest overall 800 time. Home team highlights came from Frankie Wilkins, much the faster of only two entrants in the 13 years age group in a PB time, and Zoe Hester who was third fastest overall behind Wood and the powerful Laura Andrews of Essex club Killerwhales in a rare outing over the distance.
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Breaststroke swimmers tend to be a breed apart, so the well-designed meet programme moved the longest event in that stroke, the 200, into Friday's schedule alongside the freestyle sprinters and long-distance events. The home team's York Kloeppel swam an outstanding 2.27.51 to take the men's grand final, very close to what would have been a first ever national youth qualifying time.
Callum Willcox went one better and collected Reading's first prized "NQT" of the weekend, swimming 2.42.18 against a target of 2.43.05 to win the 13s' group, just ahead of Acton's Melako Coker who was also inside the national mark.
Frankie Wilkins did well to make the ladies' final in topping the 13 years group, losing out there to a disqualification, while Zoe Clark was top 14-year-old in a five-second PB.
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Saturday opened for the girls with a tough one – the 16-length 400m IM - and Frankie Wilkins did very well to take the overall bronze, beaten only by the much older Killerwhales pair of Kirsty Forbes and Georgie-Lou Sales.
A very strong field of 100m butterfly swimmers were out to qualify for the men's final, which eventually saw five out of six timed under a minute. Hester just pipped Sandell, reversing the heat placings, with Tom Norgate of Windsor third.
Adam Barrett, fresh from his outstanding series of swims at the Berks and South Bucks championships, was a whisker outside the overall final and a comfortable winner of the 14's group, and Willcox took the 13s' bronze.
Three 15-year-old girls made the 200 freestyle grand final, won convincingly by Ealing's 16-year-old Turner and with Reading's Paige second in 2.10.
Eleanor Cawthorne impressed with a PB of over three seconds in taking the 13s' silver, with Rachael Mills runner-up to Bracknell's Alexandra Leonard in her first competition as a 14-year-old.
Chris Boyce, 14, opened his account with a 200 IM age group silver, and among the big guns the host club dominated as Dixon, Sandell and Kloeppel qualified 1-2-3 for the grand final.
Birmingham University student Sandell had clearly left something in reserve and eased home first, although Dixon also cut his heat time in winning the silver.
Nailed-on favourite Zoe Hester obliterated the field in the girls' 100 backstroke, but another swim which took the eye came from El Cawthorne, who cut two seconds off her heat time when placing second in the 13s' final.
The 400 free was decided on heat times alone, and Barrett's 4.16.97 won his year by a big margin from the much younger Boyce, who also swam a substantial PB. Barrett also beat the whole 15s field and was headed only by the overall medallists from the top age group in Dixon (4.02.24), Norgate and Millfield's Joe Bader.
Paige won the 100 fly, her best event, from Birmingham University's Emma Allington – a regular top performer at the meet in earlier years with Royal Tunbridge Wells - before an exciting series of heats in the 100 breaststroke again put three Reading swimmers into a grand final as fastest qualifiers - and what a thriller that race that
turned out to be.
Sandell qualified fastest, followed by former club captain Alex Perrin, now 24 and only an occasional competitor, and Kloeppel. The trio pushed one another all the way with Kloeppel just getting the touch in 1.07.76 to Perrin's 1.07.96 and Sandell third in 1.09.11. Kloeppel missed the national qualifying mark by just a third of a second.
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Sunday saw the girls tackle the events the boys swam on Saturday, and vice versa. Rachael Mills followed up her excellent 400 freestyle junior championship-winning swim in the recent county series with an age group gold and Cawthorne won a two-horse race with Ealing's Ellie Price as both recorded substantial PBs in their year.
Adam Barrett again impressed in the overall field against much more powerful older swimmers. The 14-year-old made the grand final of the 100 back, where he was beaten only by young men aged 22, 19, and 18. Former Reading club captain David Thomas, back from the University of East Anglia, placed fifth.
Barrett made a similar impact in the 200 free, where Dan Hester blasted his way to the overall title in 1.50.30 after a 1.56 heat. Dixon was in good shape in taking the silver (1.58.56, a second quicker than his heat) and Norgate also beat two minutes for the bronze.
Kristina Paige lifted the 200 fly title in a PB time, before Callum Willcox had the gallery on the edge of their seats as he attacked his national qualifying mark of 5.09.32 in the 400 IM.
The 13-year-old could hardly have got closer, stopping the clock in 5.09.38 - a typically gutsy swim. Willcox still has a number of opportunities to make the mark before the June deadline, starting at Crawley SC's open meet this Saturday.
The last girls' 200-metre event pitched Zoe Hester into a great scrap with Ealing's Holly Mills. Hester prevailed in a very tight finish in the final, 2.12.55 to the Londoner's 2.13.03, Mills in turn nine seconds ahead of third-ranked Kirsty Forbes of Killerwhales. Naomi Herring placed fifth and there was a further age group medal for Eleanor Cawthorne, this time a bronze.
Adam Barrett saved his best swim of a busy weekend for last, an outstanding second in the 200 back grand final to Taunton Deane's Ashley Vearncombe (17) in 2.12.31.
Ealing sprinters Jenna Turner and Holly Mills ended the meet as they began, first and second in the 100 freestyle, while Charles Turner, Dan Hester and Matt Sandell again topped the men's rankings.
An exciting IM "skins" series tested swimmers' stamina as the meet drew to a close, the strokes drawn one by one. With butterfly called last, Ealing's Holly Mills and Reading's Sandell scooped the prize money to cap a great weekend for both.
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| 1st | Ealing | 459 points |
| 2nd | Killerwhales | 406 points |
|
Age Group |
Male |
Female |
| Top Male/Female | Matt Sandell - Reading | Holly Mills - Ealing |
| Age Group Winners | ||
| 10 Year | Ade Coker - Acton | Susie Morrison - Rushmoor Royals |
| 11 Year | Eamonn Haroun - Ealing | Alice Hogan - Croydon Amphibians |
| 12 Year | Cristian Rotundu - Ealing | Lizzy Gray - Tilehurst |
| 13 Year | Melako Coker - Acton | Lauren Turner - Ealing |
| 14 Year | Adam Barrett - Reading | Rachael Mills - Reading |
| 15 Year | Dean Smith - Killerwhales | Zoe Hester - Reading |