THE Kelly College swim team claimed the runners up place in the Devon ASA Interclub Championship in Plymouth last weekend after a hard fought battle against county rivals Plymouth Leander and 15 other club teams from all over Devon. The winning margin of 50 points in favour of the Plymouth squad did not truly reflect the closeness of competition in many of the events where the Kelly swimmers produced 9 individual victories and a first place in the relay competition climax - the 8 x 50m freestyle relay. The newest and youngest member of the squad, Katherine Stacey, scored the first maximum points in the first event, girls? 11years 50m freestyle in a time of 30.28s and was followed by another victory by 13 year old Megan Mackenzie in the 13 years 50m backstroke. The team produced great results in the breaststroke events with wins by Laura Sprague in the 50m 13 year race, Holly Yeo and Joshua Lake in the 15 year category and by Sophie Calpin and Jack Cockerton in the Open age group. Sophie had fought for the whole 100 metres to stay with Leander?s GB team member Cassie Patten (18) and with a perfectly timed finish claimed the 17 points in 1.14.47, a new school record. Girls? team captain, Amanda Sanderson took victory for the 15 year olds in the backstroke event and Cameron Carpenter-Warren repeated the feat for the 11 year age group. The team also earned 14 second place positions with Gregg Shrosbree taking two in the 13 year backstroke and breaststroke and Thomas Howe in the 15 years butterfly and freestyle. Sister Sophie was runner up in the 13 year 50m butterfly as was Michael Wallis in the equivalent boys? event. Amanda, Megan and Cameron added second places to their victories in the girls? 100m freestyle, girls? 13 and boys? 11 50m freestyle respectively. Further freestyle runner up places were achieved by Jakie Wellman in the Open and James McFarlane in the 13 year categories. Matthew Henry, despite swimming another huge personal best time had to settle for second place in the 15 year 100m backstroke where he just missed breaking the 1 minute with a time of 1.00.22. The finale was the most exciting race of the day with 4 girls and 4 boys, one from each age group, competing in the 8 way cannon relay. Kelly started with a great lead from Thomas Howe against younger opposition. This lead was maintained by team mates, Kathryn, Cameron, James, Megan, Amanda and Jakie, leaving David Kelly to hold on against the national record holder form Singapore, Fergus Kuek of Plymouth Leander. Other team members: Chatlotte Pickard and Charlie Bayliss.
