Berkhamsted swimmers impress in opening Division Two meet

The evening began with a bang as Kate Hopper stormed to victory by over three seconds in the Open 100m Individual Medley in 1:10.61 and was followed equally impressively by Cam MacDonald, returning from Oxford to swim for the club, taking third place in the men’s event with 1:10.00 to lower his PB by nearly two seconds in the process.

In the 9-11 years 50m Back, nine-year-old Emily Besent (against swimmers up to 2 years older) and Seba Quezada (11) both swam PBs of 45.48 and 51.54 to record fifth and seventh places respectively.

County Age Group finalist Valeria Antonini swept home in the 12/13 100m Breast to chop almost three seconds off her PB in 1:30.54, as she secured the club’s second win of the night and was followed by a sixth place (2.18 second PB) for Alex Howard in the boys’ race with 1:44.26.

Alana Van Deventer and Hugo Verstringhe competed for the club in the 14/15 100m fly clocking 1:33.91 and 1:36.58 in their races, before in the 9-13 Mixed Free relay, Poppy Carbery, Besent, Charles Hemlin and Oscar Moss came home fifth in a very tight finish, just behind the Letchworth squad, touching out in 1:12.63..

They were followed with a fantastic second place finish for the 14 and Over Mixed Medley squad of Fergus Reid, Verstringhe, Tracy Van Deventer and Lily Welbourne who touched out Bushey ASC in 2:21.16.

In the Open Backstroke, Reid was fourth and Izzy MacDonald fifth then Dewi Fordyce swam into second with a new PB of 48.40 for the 50m Breast after Maisy Harding had sliced an amazing five seconds off her previous best with 50.18 in the same event for girls.

Penny Reid was fifth in the 12/13 50m Fly and Charles Hemlin clocked another five second improvement on his fly with 45.94.

Welbourne clocked 1:09.82 and Darshan McGregor 1:06.91 in the 14/15 100m Free with Welbourne clipping just 0.09 from her PB.

Back to a couple of mixed (and one from each of the four groups) relays and in the 4 x 25m fly relay MacDonald, Rafe Lawson, Penny Reid and Alana Van Deventer came in a creditable third where just 0.33 seconds separated second to fourth, touching home in 1:07.95.

In the ‘Medley distance’ (2 x 25m and 2 x 50m legs) 150m Free Relay, Izzy MacDonald anchored home Hemlin, Harding and Verstringhe to lead in the second group of clubs for fourth with 1:44.66.

Tamsin Moren, recovering from injury, won the Open 100m Breast at a canter, by exactly four seconds spot on her PB and Cam MacDonald, not normally a Breaststroker but standing in for the club, came in fifth in 1:25.70.

Mia Monksmith and Rafe Lawson were the 9-12 50m Flyers for the club and were sixth (52.63 PB) and first (38.66 PB) with Lawson having seven seconds of clear water between him and the second placed swimmer.

Poppy Awdry made it two consecutive wins for BSC when she took the 12/13 100m Free in 1:08.74, her first time sub 69 seconds, winning by more than three seconds, and then Jack Moss lowered his free best to 1:16.23.

There were more PBs in the 14/15 100m Backstroke as Alana Van Deventer improved nearly seven seconds to record 1:28.85, only to watch Ollie Broadwith smash his PB out of the park by 13.62 seconds as he came in with 1:23.71.

The Mixed 4 x 25m Breaststroke squad of Moren, Hopper, Howard and Fordyce picked up fourth with 1:22.23 in yet another tightly contested race.

Tracy Van Deventer felt she could possibly have gone quicker when coming second in the Open 100m Fly, hanging onto being the fastest in the family, for the moment, with 1:21.91 and Masters returnee Sam Newman showing he still has what it takes, repeating the second place for the men with 1:08.00, grit and determination keeping him ahead of the Tring swimmer to the finish.

Monksmith posted a PB of 36.79 for fourth in the 9-12 50m Free with Oscar Moss recording 47.25.

In the 12/13 100m Back Poppy Carbery came home fourth in 1:32.84 (PB) with Jack Moss sixth in 1:34.96 (also PB).

Then Hopper hammered down the pool to take her second win of the night in the 14/15 100m Breast, just ahead of her friend and keen rival from Tring with McGregor fifth in his event in 1:37.16.

Izzy MacDonald and Newman were the pair of Open 100m Free swimmers and both came home third in 1:12.44 and 1:03.10 respectively.

The final three events were, again, relays, starting with the 9-13 Mixed Medley where Antonini, Quezada, Jack Moss and Besent flew the flag for BSC with 1:26.50.

The Mixed 4 x 50m Free relay saw Welbourn lead off to Broadwith, followed by Izzy MacDonald and Fergus Reid bring back another third place in 2:03.82.

Tring romped away with the final event for another victory in a gala they dominated but, four seconds clear of third place Newman, Awdry, Moren, Howard, McGregor, Monksmith, Hopper and Lawson could be delighted with the second place time of 2:00.54 for the 8 x 25m legs of the Squadron relay.

Overall fourth on the night with so many novice swimmers was a superb outcome for the athletes and new head coach, Doug Hose, was rightly delighted with the performances across the board.