KELLY College swim team extended their unbeaten run in the Western Area Speedo League Competition to 11 galas by winning the second round of this season?s contest at the Keynsham pool near Bristol last Saturday. The new comers to the premier division repeated the result of their first outing with a points advantage of 48 over second place team Bournemouth Dolphins and, in so doing, earned themselves a place in the finals gala to be held at the Hutton Moor swimming pool, Weston-Super-Mare just before Christmas. The squad met teams from Bournemouth, Stroud, Bristol North, Swindon and West Wiltshire and were inspired by their coach Robin Brew to fight for every point and support each other to maintain their 100% record in the competition so far. Girls? captain, Amanda Sanderson, got the team off to a great start by winning the Womens Open 200IM and continued to race her heart out to claim three more individual wins: U15 100m freestyle, Open and U15 100m backstroke as well as racing in 4 relays. In the boys 9-11 age group, the team of Oliver Lake, Mark Brend, Charlie Bayliss and Cameron Carpenter-Warren won both the medley and freestyle relays and Charlie and Cameron earned maximum points in their individual butterfly and freestyle events respectively. In the 15/U category, the boys relay team of Thomas Howe, Matthew Henry, Saul Phillips and Philip Channon won the freestyle relay and the outcome was repeated when Joshua Lake replaced Philip for the medley relay. Both Matthew and Joshua gained first place in their respective individual swims: 100m backstroke and 100m breaststroke. For the girls breaststroke, classmates Sophie Calpin and Holly Yeo gained a win a piece with Sophie competing in the 15/U group and Holly racing in the Open heat. Holly then went on to join Rebecca Fletcher, Brikitta Batten and captain Amanda in the medley relay for 15/U where they were convincing winners. The girls also won their freestyle relay where Samantha Tubb swam in Holly?s place. Brikitta also swam up an age group and fought all the way to win the Open 100m butterfly. The girls were also very strong in the U13 age group with wins in both freestyle and medley relays with Laura Sprague, Megan Mackenzie, Sophie Howe and Rebecca Fletcher making up the team in both races. Megan also won the 100m backstroke and Sophie touched first in the 100m butterfly in the same age category. Despite having built up a comfortable lead coming into the last two relays ? Ladies and Mens 6x50m freestyle ? the whole team cheered the ladies, Jakie Wellman, Rebecca Smith, Angharad Morrison, Brikitta Batten, Flora Duffy and Amanda Sanderson and then the men, Jonathon Wills, Luke Wakefield, Ryan Brova, Matthew Slator, Davis Kelly and Thomas Howe to two well earned and hard fought victories. After the final point tally was announced, the excitement then turned to anticipation at the thought of finally meeting school rivals, Millfield, and Devon county opponents, Plymouth Leander, to fight for a place in the National final for the first time.
