Head Coaches Report

Exeter City Swimming Club held their Silver Jubilee two-day open meet at Millfield School, Somerset, and were host to 34 teams from the south of England, the Midlands and Wales. The meet offered the complete Olympic event range from 50m to 1500m freestyle, 100m + 200m of each stroke and 200m + 400m IM through the age groups. The meet was an ASA Level 1 designated meet for entry into National competitions and attracted a number of medallists from last years Nationals.
 
Currently experiencing problems with pool availability and pool time the city squad found the 50m long course racing tough. It was evident there was a general lack of speed taking swims out and lack of strength in finishing races. Considering their training background over the Christmas months the Exeter swimmers still collected a decent haul of medals and produced 16 club records during the weekend.
 
Most prolific over the weekend was 14yr-old Liam Spruce who set personal best times in all his events breaking six club records on his way to winning four events and placing second in another. He won the 13/14 100m & 200m breaststroke, the 14 & under championship final 100m breaststroke and the 13/14 200m IM. Both of his breaststroke swims were just outside of the 15yr-old national qualifying times. Liam also collected the silver in the 13/14 200m freestyle.
 
Hot on Liam's heels in terms of medal haul were Alex Wooldridge, 16, and Hannah Schulz, 13. Alex claimed the top podium finish in the 15/16 100m & 200m breaststroke, won the 15 & over championship final for the 100m breaststroke, collected the silver & a club record in the age group 200m butterfly, and finished third in the age group 100m butterfly posting a club record at the 50m split on the way to a record at the 100m. Hannah also picked up three golds with wins in her 12/13 age group in the 200m + 400m IM and the 200m breaststroke - the breaststroke being a club record & British National Championship qualifying time, and was actually the first time the former national champion has swum the event in the past year having suffered from knee problems. Hannah also had an excellent finish to a pretty tiring weekend with a silver place finish in the 13/14 & the junior girls final of the 100m breaststroke, in a club record time, losing the event by a mere 0.06sec. She also made the 'skins' at the end of the first days swimming after her top 8 overall placing in the 200m IM, and finished 4th against the open competition, plus set a club record on the 50m breaststroke on the way.
 
13yr-old Sally Whybra had a busy schedule during the weekend and managed to improve the quality of her racing with each swim on her way to finishing in the top 5 of eight of her swims. Gold came on the 200m butterfly, her last and best swim of the weekend produced a silver in the junior final of the 100m butterfly, and bronze medal performances came from the age group 400m IM, 400 freestyle, and 200 backstroke.
 
Maria Griss, 13, was the only other city swimmer to collect gold during the meet, which she did in the 12/13 400m freestyle in a personal best time. She also finished third in the 200m freestyle, fourth in the 800m freestyle, and produced a pb in the final of the junior girls 100m freestyle.
 
Rebecca Jenkins swam to a trio of bronze medal finishes in the 17 & over age group & championship final of the 100m backstroke and in the age group 200m freestyle. Rebecca also finished 4th in the 17 & over 200m backstroke. Laura Sprague, 15, only swam the first day of competition due to exam commitments, but came away with an excellent 2nd place finish in the open 'skins' event having qualified for the event through her third place finish in the 15/16 200m IM. Laura also placed 3rd in the 14 & over 100m freestyle championship final and 3rd in the 50m freestyle.
 
Just outside the medal placings were 11yr-old Georgie Taylor with a fourth place finish in the 200m backstroke, a placing emulated by 12yr-old Tom Wadeley-Jones in the 11/12 100m backstroke - Tom did break the club record for the 50m backstroke on his way to his 4th place. Oli Lee was 5th in the 13/14 200m butterfly, Rebecca Hitt was 5th in the 14/15 400m IM, Annie Tinsley was 6th in the 14/15 200m freestyle, and Warren Barrett placed 5th in the 50m freestyle and 6th in both the 100m & 200m freestyle in the 17& over age group.
 
Three other swimmers managed to break existing club records - records that have only been kept long course since 2003. Elliott Randall sliced a couple of hundredths from the 10/under 50m breaststroke record at the half way stage of his 100m breaststroke, 12yr-old Amy Cole matched him with the same feat for her breaststroke event, and 13yr-old Sam Collett set a record for the 50m backstroke at the half way stage of his 100m backstroke.
 
Other swimmers producing pb's during the weekend were 10yr-olds Elliott Randall in the 100m & 200m breaststroke and Ed Jackson in the 100m freestyle, 200m IM & 200 backstroke, 11yr-old Meg Watkinson in the 100m freestyle, 12yr-old Amy Cole in the 100m & 200m breaststroke and 200m IM, 13yr-olds Sam Jackson in the 100m freestyle and 200m & 400m IM and Sam Collett in the 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke, and 14yr-old Oli Lee in the 100m & 400m freestyle.
 
Exeter coach Jon Randall expressed his concern over his squads recent lack of training pool time saying ' we've had a bumpy ride over the last three months with our training programme and that certainly showed with our performances this weekend. There were some quality swims, but as a squad we need a period of consistency from our training to be able to start producing those quality results across the board. '
 
Jon
 

Links

Devon County ASA

ASA SouthWest

British Swimming