KELLY College swimmers made up 40% of the Devon County team who won division 2 of the 2005 National County Team Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield recently. The 14 team members from Kelly College included Jack Cockerton, Luke Wakefield, Laura Sprague, Amy Bayliss, Sophie Calpin, Ben Clark, Amanda Sanderson, Sophie Howe, Tom Howe, Matthew Henry, Philip Channon, Rebecca Fletcher, Joshua Lake and Megan Mackenzie. Danny Brown from Kelly, who recently joined the school, was swimming for South Wales where he came 2nd in the 100m breaststroke in division 1. Competing against 33 counties Devon were in the lead after the first few events and were never toppled from this position. They finished on 489 with Lincolnshire on 461 and Staffordshire on 447. These three counties plus Suffolk (407) won promotion to Division 1. The team had three first, five second and four third place finishes but the whole team effort as swimmers finished ninth or above in 29 of the 31 events put Devon in a strong position. The 16/17 boys? team of Patrick Friel, Jack Cockerton, Dwaine Bushell and Luke Wakefield won their heat in 1.50.37. The 14/15 boys? team of Matthew Henry, Alex Bunney, Joshua Lake and Ben Clark won the second heat in 1.53.84. The senior girls? team of Megan Bushnell, Amanda Sanderson, Kim Saddler and Charlotte Perry won their heat in 2.06.99 but were not quite fast enough to beat Worcestershire from heat 1 and had to settle for second. In the only freestyle team race, the final 6x50m mixed event, team of Megan Bushnell, Ben Clark, Laura Sprague, James Bunney, Megan MacKenzie and Luke Wakefield put up in a sterling effort to finish second. Jack Cockerton was the team?s only individual winner ? he took the 16/17 100m breaststroke in 1.05.23. Jack also finished third in the backstroke in a new best time. Megan Bushnell was second in the 16/17 100m backstroke in 1.06.51. In the same age group Kim Saddler set a new pb when she finished second in the fly in1.06.44. James Bunney knocked more than three seconds off his best time in finishing second in the 12/13 100m butterfly. He also knocked two seconds off his freestyle time to go below 60. Matthew Henry was the fourth to take a runner?s-up spot in the 100m in the 14/15 age group in 1.00.54. Jodie Worbey swam to a new pb in the 14/15 butterfly to finish third in 1.05.61. Laura Sprague finished third, knocking two seconds off her time in the 12/13 freestyle. Maria Graney finished third in the 12/13 backstroke lowering her time by more than a second and a half to finish in 1.09.36. In the 12/13 breaststroke events Mitchell Bennellick took almost two seconds off his time while Emma Carter reduced hers by more than a second. Ben Clark took over two seconds off his 14/15 freestyle entry time.
