Clocking up the Counties and racking up the Regionals

Event: Yeovil and District Level 3 Christmas Open Meet Venue: Millfield School Date: 15th and 16th December 2012

For the third time in as many weekends, Dolphin were in action at Millfield pool in Somerset; this time for the Yeovil and District Level 3 Christmas Open Meet.  Twenty seven swimmers from the County and Regional Squads were competing, all looking to secure qualifying times for next year’s competitions.

Nine year olds Henry Pearce and Maya Grounsell look to be ones to watch in the future as they each picked up a handful of county qualifying times in their first appearance at an open meet.  It was also a first outing for 11 year old Zac Grounsell who came agonisingly close to his first qualifying time.  Hannah Brown, Jake Lewis and Megan Jones achieved their first qualifying time of 2013 and a further seven swimmers secured new county times with many others improving on existing ones.

Andrew Cox had threatened all last season to add his name to the list of regional qualifiers and came within two tenths of a second of the 200m backstroke consideration time on the first day.  Cox also came close in three other events before finally realising his regional ambitions on the second day in the final event of the meet, the 50m freestyle.  Gemma Lucas’ return to fitness and form looks to be way ahead of schedule as she also added her name to the list of regional qualifiers in the 200m backstroke.

Following multiple successes in their 50m events at the Arena League final a week earlier, both Olivia Flack and Sophie Bartlett backed this up with regional qualifying swims in both sprint and middle distance events.  Flack recorded two qualifying swims whilst Bartlett recorded regional standard swims in an impressive four events and looks to be a force to be reckoned with at next year’s championships.

Sophie Bartlett ~ four regional qualifying swims

In the medal positions, Georgia Dicks was Dolphin’s highest earner with two gold.  Andrew Cox won gold, silver and bronze whilst Olivia Flack and Sophie Bartlett took home one gold each.  Regan Jefferies picked up silver with Thomas Gase and Joshua Fox each earning one bronze apiece.