Round One of the Arena National Swimming League

Saturday saw the opening round of the newly renamed Arena National Swimming League and Whitchurch were in action at Woolston in Warrington. In the draw we faced current league champions Bolton, along with Lancaster City, Ellesmere Port, Northwich and Altrincham.

In the first race Amelia Penn set the standard for the evening when she won the 11/u girls Breastroke in a personal best time of 39.86. Golden girl of the evening, Charlotte Evans who won all her events carried on the winning streak with a convincing victory in the Open Ladies 100m Freestyle and Joe Evans cruised home in first place in the Open Mens Freestyle. After the first 10 events we were joint leaders with Bolton on 40 points, followed by Lancaster City just behind on 39.

We won 5 of the next 20 events with the mixed 15/u (Bryony, Tom Bishop, Lydia and Tom Penn) and Open (Charlotte A, Jamie, Charlotte E and Joe) relay teams winning the medleys. Thomas Bishop somehow managed to take his team from second to first place in the air as he was diving in and the rest of the team kept them there. In the individual events, Lydia changed tactics in the 15/u 100m Fly and lead from the start for a comfortable win in a personal best time. Amelia once again made it look easy as she won the 50m Butterfly in another personal best time and Charlotte Archdeacon cruised home to victory with a 15m lead in the Open Ladies Backstroke. Jamie Taylor, in a co-ordinated hat and leg skin, looked the part as he too eased home to a win in the backstroke. In spite of this, after 30 events Bolton took the lead with 119 points, Lancaster had pushed through to second with 118 and we were third with 114.

In the final 10 events the tension was rising as the top teams battled for first place. Charlotte Evans tentatively celebrated her convincing win in the 100m Fly in Usain Bolt style but it was Joe Evans who swam the final leg of the Open Freestyle Relay who even slowed down as he came to the finish to then give the Usain Bolt celebration of the relay team’s win. The 15/u relay team – Bryony, Callum, Abi and Thomas Penn also won their Freestyle event.

In the end the result could not have been closer – Bolton were first with 157 points and we were joint second with Lancaster City on 156 points. Northwich were also close on our tails with 111 points.

As well as the winning swims, there were many great swims from the whole team. Tom Kitching made a very impressive debut for the team swimming the 50m backstroke in a personal best time; Philippa Lane, possibly the only 9 year old in the pool also swam extremely well. The 13/u teams were very strong in spite of being young in their age group and the 15/u boys made the leap from 50m swims to 100m very well. Thomas Penn swam a 6 second pb in the 100m Fly. Overall there were many pbs which is very encouraging at this point in the season. Well done to everyone who took part.

The next gala is Saturday 14th November. The team on Saturday was: Philippa Lane, Amelia Penn, Annabel Cook, Beth Jamieson, Alice Tow, Abi Fawcett, Lydia Jamieson, Bryony Archdeacon, Charlotte Evans, Charlotte Archdeacon, Tom Kitching, Ed Reid, James Cook, Hayden Ciesielski, Thomas Bishop, Thomas Penn, Callum Trent, Jamie Taylor and Joe Evans.