Michaelmas Term Match Reports 2009 update

2009-2010 Match and Event Reports:

IAPS Finals Regional Qualifier at Warwick School, 23rd Feb at 3.30pm

This has been the highlight for the U10 to U13 A teams in the term. Warwick has been a successful school winning medals at the Finals competition over the past 10 years. With reigning IAPS champion Peter Clark clocking a new pb for 50m backstroke in the past week the whole team are looking forward to racing for finals places.

There were 5 visiting teams to use the electronic timing system and swim with ASA officials monitoring the event. IAPS qualifiers have a number of key rules to open the events to as many schools as possible. For example swimmers can only swim in one individual event & in their age group relays; swimmers starting in the relays at the shallow end of the pool are required to be in the water and remain 'hand held' until the incoming swimmer touches; swimmers who 'swim up' in age can only compete in that older age group in the qualifier and remain in the same age group for the finals.

Only the top 16 individaul times recorded in each event nationally and the top 12 relay teams will qualify for the IAPS Finals at K2, Crawley on May 15th.

Warwick's swimmers almost universally performed at their best in their events and are excited to find out if they have qualified. Warwick's performances raised the bar on last year with potentially double the individual swimmers looking to qualify from 2009, while the Warwick U10, U12 & U13 relay times were the best of the year to date while the U11 squad made great efforts to qualify without their captain Will Fawcett.
These will be posted on the eteach website in late March.

IAPS trial gala at the Dragon School,Oxford 8th Feb 2010
Boys Match Result: Warwick 338 The Dragon 287.

A very exciting gala with Warwick putting out very strong squads in the U9 and U13 age groups. For the U10, U11 and U12 teams this was alast chance to set new bset times and gain a 'prized' place in the IAPS teams. Wins for the U11 and U12 teams despite missing some swimmers through injury and illness ensured a good win overall. Only the U10's were outswum despite some individual winners and 5 new best times were set. The overall individual and relay performances were very encouraging for the regional qualifer after half term.

Seniors vs Abingdon School Feb 3rd 2010
Match Result: Warwick 217 Abingdon 186.

A first competitive event with the Abingdon School and Warwick were eventually overall winners but the result was within a relay decision as the teams entered the final Medley Relay events.

Coming after the 100 mile swim there were some sluggish performances from those who had been on 'all weekend duty' during the 100 Mile Swim and Abingdon swept the first three IM races. Backstroke events saw a change in fortune and 5 Warwick wins back to back, with pb's for Walters (U18 back)and Maguire(U16 breast), were key to the team points gained. Warwick's Swim Captain, Brian Lo, set a best timefor the year of just over 33 seconds for the Senior 50m breastroke and a win over half a length clear of the field before returning to win the blue riband Senior Freestyle in a narrow finish.

The U16 team had the severest challenge of the 3 age group squads and 3 finger tip finshes in Breastroke, Butterfly and Freestyle events were most exciting. Walton went under 30 seconds for 50m butterfly for the first time( and then a second time in the Medley relay split) but came second and Jon Gill just missed this target in the race before. Good individual performances all evening auger well for some fast racing in March at Bedford when the focus will be on school relay records.

IAPS Trial gala vs Bromsgrove Jan 2010

A competitive event with a handful of IAPS winners from last year on show was always going to be exciting. Practising the shallow end push off takeover required in the IAPS preliminary competition this year was a productive means to an end. Lessons were learnt by the home team and all the swimmers picked up on needing to improve their takeover skills before the Regional time trials in February.

Warwick were dominant at U11 with Fawcett setting a new school 50m backstroke record and were narrow winners at U10 with Bromwich, despite a poor start, swimming a new best 50m Freestyle time and anchoring the team to relay wins.

Despite Warwick winners in several individual events it took personal best times on both teams to take the key points and the realys decided the individual age group matches. Bromsgrove, recent IAPS relay medallists at U12 and U11 levels, were just too strong for the Warwick quartets on this occasion. Assuming both school squads reach the finals in May then it could be very close based on these fast practice performances. Best race of the day was the U12 50m backstroke where a finger touch split the protagonists and big pb's were recorded by all the swimmers invovled. Max Clarke will be relishing another crack at the current IAPS champion and a great race is expected at K2 in May.

Seniors vs Stowe and Bromsgrove Schools Tuesday 1st December (Home)
Result: Warwick 198 Bromsgrove 218
Result: KHS 206 Bromsgrove 183

The term's swimming events came to a close with a curtailed match as Stowe failed to materialise on the day. Illness and recent rugby injuries saw Warwick field largely A/B teams in all events which made for an exciting and interesting afternoon of racing for the coach.

Warwick gifted Bromsgrove 17 points and the match through two moments of madness. A early start in the U14 Freestyle Relay and a 'Did Not Finish' due to goggles trouble. Scoring no points for the two races was the differnce between a boys win and a loss. It showed that swimming matches are a team event and every individual is key and has a responsibility to gain their best points. On the up side the rest of the team rose to the challenge and produced 17 individual personal best times and creating some very close races. The highlight was perhaps in the very first race when the U18 200m Freestyle Relay (Lo,Duck,Gill&Selby) who won in the second fastest time by a school squadron in 1.46.44. The only faster swim and school record was set in 2001(1.45.68).

Junior Match vs Bedford Modern School and Solihull JS (Home)
Boys Result: Warwick 212 Solihull 160 BMS 123
Girls Result: King's 242 Solihull 119 BMS 144

An exciting all 25m competition showed how much progess progress has been made this year as we fielded extremely competitive U11 and U10 teams and some fast improving U9's. However both the opposing teams brought high quality swimmers who raced well and won one or more individul events. A good overall win with 32 new best times swum and we hope this will be a springboard for the IAPS and ESSA competition training next term.

Seniors vs Nottingham High School (Home) Result: Warwick 410 Nottingham 418

Last Thursday the senior squad entertained Nottingham in a 5 age group gala. In what has been a tough fixture in previous years a very exciting competition unfolded.

Warwick won 18 of the 35 races and came out victorious in the freestyle relays - with the Head Master watching - and then later on the backstroke and individual freestyle events. Close finishes in 2 key butterfly races and in the team medley relay events saw Nottingham take these narrowly with their strong contingent of breastrokers winning the last stroke competition. With better placed B team swimmers the match swung to Nottingham by the smallest of margins.

With illness and injury affecting the team selection the seniors thanked the 3 Junior School boys who came and filled in - Will Fawcett in the U13 team and Henry Catchpole and Jsck Nixon with the U12 team. They made the best of the opportunity to race against older boys with all 3 swimming personal best times and Fawcett reducing the U11 50m Backstroke record time by 2 seconds and winning the U13 race.

Peter Clark, swimming up a year in the U14 team, took 2 seconds from the previous U13 school backstroke record and a new personal best time.

The U12's won their first match of the season but needed personal best times to win through. The U13's remain unbeaten after racing hard in the last metres in several races to grab the all important top places.

Junior Match vs Bromsgrove (Away) Result: Bromsgrove 610 points, Warwick 618 points.

The season started for the Junior School team with literally a huge splash as the U8 team did their first competitive dives and races. In a close match every point counted and despite dominating the boys U11 competition the scores swung one way, then the other right up to the last 2 freestyle relay races. The U10 boys and U11 boys teams look very strong and as starts and getting more quickly into race pace swimming comes on stream best times should tumble.

The U8's set 2 new records for their relay event, Jack Bromwich re-set the U9 Butterfly record and Will Fawcett shaved just 0.1 from the U11 25m freestyle and backstroke records during the meet.

The Senior Swim teams started their season with a double match win vs Solihull & Camp Hill. Winning 5 of the 6 age groups and all the overall stroke competitons the result was a sound overall victory.

Senior Match vs Solihull and Camp Hll Schools
Boys Result: Warwick 222 Solihull 158 Camp Hill 131
Girls Result: King's 229 Solihull 164 Camp Hill 108

School records fell on Tuesday 22nd September as the swimmers started their season with a bang! Three age groups at U13, U15 and U18 competed with A & B teams with over 110 competitors taking part. Clearly in some events Warwick & KHS had some
swimmers clearing the cobwebs from their systems or recovering from illness - but with a focus on streamlining and efficient turns with a longer underwater phase we saw many improvements and consistently led many races from gun to timing pad.

Swimming as U13's the boys debut swimmers were Barry(U4th); Clarke, Dee, Pearson and Maguire (L4th's) who set impressive times for their first school swims. P.Clark set the first new school record of the year in the U13 50m backstroke which looks as if it may well be significantly reduced in the coming months and/or at the IAPS Finals.

No new records fell at U13 level for the KHS team but good times were set by the squad in all events that auger well for later in the year.

The U15's boys swam well across the events but more fitness and technique work is needed to challenge for new school best times & get them ready for nationals. 2 mins flat for the 200m free relay was good but could be so,so much better.

Records a plenty fell for the very strong girls' U14 squad who took on their U15 opponents. The welcome return of Turner and Evans to competitive events saw the A & B teams racing each other for the honours. M.Spaulding set new records for 50m Br & 100m IM with a new best for E.Hutchinson for 50m Fly.

In the senior age group Solihull had their strongest team. KHS using their U15's swimmers to complete the senior squad always had a difficult task. C. Riley set new figures for the U15 100m IM and 50m Back - the third age group in succession she has become the record holder. Equally R.Oscroft, without extending herself, reset the U15 50m Free record at 30.19secs. This mixed age squad set a new school best relay time for both team 200m relays only just losing to the more experienced Solihull quartet.

With 12 senior boys to select from Warwick's two senior 200m freestyle squads started the gala with both going under 1min 50secs for the 200m Free relay - an unprecedented achievement.

2008-2009 Match and Event Reports:

U11 Freestyle Relay team won their first ever ESSA Division 4 title at Grantham at the end of the Lent term and qualified for the ESSA National Junior School Swimming Finals at Ponds Forge, Sheffield on June 20th.

At Grantham the team of Ainslie, Dee, Fawcett and Catchpole set their best times of the year in the heat swim and reduced it by a further 1.5 seconds to just over 66 seconds in the final.

At Sheffield’s Ponds Forge Aquatic centre to compete in the 60th National Junior Schools Swimming Relays Finals competition was fierce.

Asked to be a substitute team in the medley (mixed stroke) team Fawcett, Nixon, Dee & Ainslie managed to swim a 5 second best time for the season – all 4 boys swimming personal best times to record 1 min 12 seconds and move from 24th ranked at the meet to achieve a national ranking of 10th place.

In the freestyle relay as ESSA Division 4 champions – Dee, Fawcett, Ainslie & Catchpole – zoomed to a 4 second improvement and season's best time. They were 11th nationally.

The scale of improvement since January has been most remarkable and the team owe much to the other squad swimmers pushing for places and this pressure has kept them improving week on week.

IAPS Swimming success with Clark and Fawcett in the medals !

Peter Clark took gold in the U12 50m Backstroke in a new school record 33.01 secs. Will Fawcett in the U10 25m backstroke took silver at the IAPS Swimming Finals 2009, K2 Leisure Centre, Crawley.

Outstanding performance and new school records were set by Ben Simkins in the U13 50m Freestyle final in 28.28secs, the U13 150m mixed medley team and the U12 Freestyle relay.

In the first individual final of the day Will Fawcett (U10 Backstroke) swam a great race to overtake 4 swimmers in the last 5 metres to take 2nd and the silver medal.

Ben Simkins (U13 Freestyle) reached the final in a new school record 28.48 – and then smashed it again in the final swimming coming home in 28.28 seconds for 5th place. Having started the year with a best time of 36 seconds for 2 lengths freestyle this was an(other)amazing improvement. Ben swam 4 personal best times on race day.

Peter Clark (U12 Backstroke) had qualified as the fastest swimmer for his event. Winning his heat in the hoped for a new best time against his closest rival from Millfield School. He produced a sparkling swim to reset the record at 33.01 seconds (the 7th time this year hew has set a school record in this event) and take the gold.

The standard in the event meant there were no final places for Callum Ellis (U13 Breaststroke); James Foster (U13 Backstroke)and Jack Nixon (U10 Breaststroke).

School records for the 150m Medley and U12 Freestyle relay team were an unexpected bonus to round off a great day of competition.