Exeter City Swimming Club put in a string of excellent performances at the second block of the 2009 Devon County Championships. 25 of the squad of 33 swimmers made at least one final, with the total breaking down into 10 Championship finals and 29 age group finals, and those finals culminated in a medal haul of 2 Championship medals, 7 age group titles and a 12 age group medals in what was one of the best team performances for Exeter in recent years.

 

National Youth finalist Alex Wooldridge, 18, placed in three open Championship finals, collecting silver in the 200m butterfly – just 0.2sec outside of the national qualifying time with 2:09.55, bronze in the 50m breaststroke (31.73) and placing 4^th in the 200m breaststroke (2:28.38).

 

Jess Twose, 13, a National age group finalist from 2008, overcame recent shoulder problems to make the open Championship final of the 100m IM in which she placed 4^th with a time of 1:11.62, and followed that up by becoming age group champion on the 100m backstroke in a new Devon age group record time of 1:06.93, plus she picked up a bronze from the 200m backstroke.

 

Connie Fearnley & Sally Whybra, both 15, had some excellent tussles during the weekend with both capturing a number of Championship and age group placings. Sally made the Championship final in the 100m IM and finished 5^th in a time of 1:11.68, and confidently secured the Devon age group title on the 200m breaststroke (2:56.44), as well as picking up silver on the 200m backstroke and a 5^th place finish on the 100m backstroke. Connie made the Championship final on the 200m backstroke and finished 5^th in a time of 2:29.25, and then went on to take the age group title in the 100m IM (1:11.95), 3^rd in the 100m backstroke and 4^th in the 200m breaststroke.

 

Liam Spruce, 15, made his second Championship final of the year in the 200m breaststroke in which he finished 5^th with a National Youth qualifying time of 2:30.10 – the first time since he was 11 that he’s qualified for a National championship. He was also to place 4^th in both the 50m breaststroke and 100m IM age group events.

 

14yr old Sam Jackson reduced his pb for the 1500m freestyle to 18:27.96 which was good enough to give him his first open championship placing with 5^th. Sam also enjoyed a stellar weekend in his age group with silver in the 200m butterfly, bronze in the 200m breaststroke and 6^th in the 100m IM.

 

Becca Hitt, 15, and Amy Cole, 13, also made their first Championship finals by making the 200m breaststroke, in which Becca finished 5^th with a time of 2:54.91 and Amy 6^th in 2:56.37. Both managed to place in their age group for other events with Becca placing 5^th in both the 100m IM and the 200m backstroke, and Amy finishing 4^th in the 100m IM.

 

Elliott Randall, 11, was the only City swimmer to capture two Devon titles from the weekend with a confident clear win in the 200m breaststroke (3:06.86) and with a superbly fought final in the 100m IM (1:17.69) to win the gold.

 

13yr old Brad Pearce dropped 35sec off his pb in the 1500m freestyle to record a time of 18:57.84 and pick up the age group title, and after another pb in the 200m butterfly he made the final n which he placed 5^th.

 

Maria Graney, 16, overcame a slip on the wall at the start of the 100m backstroke heats to qualify for the final of the age group and went on to win the title in a time of 1:08.22.

 

George Fearnley, 13, continued his recent excellent racing form with big pb’s in all his events on his way to securing the silver on the 100m IM, bronze on the 200m breaststroke and finishing 4^th in the 200m butterfly.

 

In the 10yr age group Tina Song-Ashdown and Georgie Cotterill both picked up medals with Tina winning the silver in the 100m IM and Georgie bronze in the 200m backstroke. Tina also finished 4^th in the 200m breaststroke. In the 11yr age group Adele Shire is competing against a particularly strong contingent from Plymouth and has pb’d on all of her events securing a bronze in the 100m IM and 4^th place finishes in the 100m & 200m backstroke and the 200m breaststroke.

 

Robyn Chard-Maple, 9, was competing in her first Devon championships and had a super weekend with a bronze medal finish in the 100m IM, 4^th in the 200m breaststroke and 5^th in the 200m backstroke. Ed Jackson, 11, is just recovering from illness yet came through to win the silver in the 200m butterfly and also place 6^th in the 200m breaststroke.

 

Other swimmers to place in finals were Freddie Fearnley, 10, 4^th in the 100m IM, Jade Webb, 11, who came 5^th in the 200m backstroke and 6^th in the 100m IM, Ed Linnington, 11, with 4^th in the 100m IM, Joe Cotterill, 12, 5^th in the 200m butterfly, Ed Bugler, 13, 5^th in the 1500m freestyle and 6^th in the 100m IM, Charlie Beeson, 14, 4^th in the 50m breaststroke, and Oli Lee, 15, who was 4^th in the 200m butterfly. 9yr old Joe Board was competing in his first Devon’s and made first reserve for the final of the 200m breaststroke with an excellent swim.

 

Exeter coach Jon Randall was full of praise for the City swimmers and the Exeter coaching staff ‘Devon swimming has moved on massively the last few years mainly due to the set-up Plymouth have with Plymouth College enabling them to bring in many new faces to Devon swimming and all of them are National medal quality. I think our coaches have done a great job in preparing our swimmers to turn up and race a whole weekend of Devon championships against such competition. Our swimmers were excellent setting quality times in the heats and going on to produce at least comparative swims in the finals. Our older swimmers have been training hard since Christmas without much let-up, and although I did give them a little speed leading into the weekend they swam some superb times across the board. The future looks bright for Exeter swimming and I’ll be challenging the squad to race as fast as they ever have in training.’