Third Place for Sx3 in First Southern Junior League Final

Swindon Swim Squads (Sx3) concluded their first Southern Junior League campaign on Saturday night with the ‘A’ team achieving third place in the final behind Bournemouth and Ferndown, both of whom had showed their strength at BAGCAT level during the previous week’s regional championships. There was consolation in the ‘B’ final with Sx3’s second string, urged on by excellent support, ending a successful season on a high by holding off the challenge of Thornbury and Bath Dolphin to claim first place.

Maddie Easter stormed to victory in the girls’ 10 years 50m butterfly and recorded the ‘A’ team’s sole individual win at the Littledown Leisure Centre, Bournemouth, while the boys’ 10 years 4x25m medley relay quartet of Tom Codling, Noah Kirby, Alex Eburne & Alex Chantler was the one and only triumph in the relay events. 

Meanwhile at the Link Centre, the ‘B’ team secured 5 first place individual finishes – 4 of them coming from the 9 and 10 years age groups, once again underlining the promise of these young emerging swimmers. Alex Wakeham won the 9 years 25m butterfly, Adam Coleman took the 10 years 50m breaststroke, Freya Weston and Luke Willis were unsurpassed in the 10 years 50m backstrokes and 12 year old Lucy Stratton touched first in the 50m freestyle. 

From their 17 relay events, the ‘B’ team won four and only slipped outside the top three on one occasion. Most successful was the girls’ 12 years squad of Scarlet Cholod, Victoria Jennings, Lauren Elias, Rebecca Healy, Charlotte Gardo and Stratton – unbeaten in both their 4x25m freestyle & medley. Not to be outdone, the boys’ 11 years 4x25m medley foursome of Jack Spooner, Elliott Willoughby, Jack Hancock and Jon Fouracre, and the 10 year freestyle team of Coleman, Scott Gunning, Luke Brown and Willis also came home first. 

With local contenders Bournemouth and Ferndown battling it out for most of the higher places, the Sx3 ‘A’ team were pleased to snatch a further 11 second places from them on the night. 9 year old, Abbey Hawkins was just touched out in her one length freestyle and backstroke swims while other notable individual displays included runner up spots for William Pilsworth (9), Sami Donmez (9), Codling (10), Jack Janicki (11), Charlotte Pitts (11), and Matthew Sambrook (12). There were also commendable second places for the girls’ 9 & 10 years medley, and boys’ 10 years freestyle relay teams. 

A partisan home crowd at the Link witnessed Sx3’s Luke Jackson (9), Harry Brooker (9), Weston (10) Gardo (12), and Rebecca Healy (12) celebrate second place finishes on their way to collecting the ‘B’ title. The girls’ 10 years squad of Weston, Chiara Parcarella, Maisie Martin, Rhian Merritt & Darcy James were narrowly beaten in both their freestyle and medley relays, with the girls’ and boys’ 9 & 11 years and Boys’ 10 years 4x25m squads all collected valuable points for finishing second.