KELLY College?s latest swimming star Megan MacKenzie returned home from the BAGCATS Western Counties Championships with an impressive medal haul of three golds, one silver and a bronze in the girls? 13 year age group. Her gold medals were all achieved in freestyle events over 200m, 400m and 800m and the times recorded in these and her bronze medal finish in the 100m were inside the national qualifying targets for the annual national BAGCATS Championships to be held in Sheffield at the end of July. Joining her in Sheffield will be team-mate Ben Clarke who also demonstrated his freestyle ability by recording three NQTs in the 100m, 200m and 400m events for 14 year old boys, earning him two bronze medals and a fourth placing. Another freestyle NQT was gained by Laura Sprague (13) who finished fifth in the 100m. This was Laura?s first ever national time and she had produced personal best times in all of her events. She also came home with a silver medal in the 200m breaststroke after two weekends of tough competition. The final medal winner of the competition for the school was Kathryn Stacey who won a bronze in the 800m freestyle with another national qualifying time. Also competing for the school were Lawrence Oxborough, James McFarlane, Matthew Stacey, Liam Yeo, Cameron Carpenter-Warren, Michael Wallis, Victoria Dewar-Fowler and Jonathan Sprague. At the sprint meet held in Gloucester at the beginning of July, the school produced first place winners in the 50m breaststroke for 16-year-old girls and 14 -year-old boys in the shape of Sophie Stanford and Jonathon Sprague. Sophie went on to win the 50m butterfly, come second in the 100m IM and third in the 50m freestyle. Meanwhile the School swim team was also present at the National Boys? IAPS competition for independent schools held at Millfield School on the same day as the Gloucester Sprints. A small contingent of six boys, each swimming their individual event, put on a great display with five out of the six making it through the heats to the finals. The most exciting and impressive swim was by James McFarlane in the U13 50m freestyle as he clocked a time close to the record in the heat and bettered it in the final while winning the gold medal. Sadly, the record remained intact but the crowd definitely enjoyed the racing. The other medal winner was Liam Yeo in the U13 50m breaststroke, who equalled his PB in the heat and produced a new personal record in the final, finishing in bronze medal position. Cameron Carpenter-Warren also swam well, just missing out on the medals in fourth place in the U12 50m backstroke. Charlie Bayliss and Lawrence Oxborough both made it into their respective finals - U11 25m butterfly and U13 50m backstroke and although he did not get to a final, Mark Brend still managed to produce a personal best time in his U12 50m breaststroke.
