After a reshuffled schedule, the boys kicked the BUCS 2012 swimming short course championships off with 50 free on Friday evening with great swims from Fraser Gordon, Michael Ingram and Niki Peric. The girls got off to a good start with Catherine Wrench breaking the IC 50 free record to then beat her own time again in the first leg of the girls relay final in a time of 27.71. More success on Friday evening was brought by Caterina Brighi qualifying for the 50 bk semi final, to then swim even faster in a time of 30.91 to get our first BUCS points (and IC record) by qualifying for the final finishing in 8th place.
After an Un-welcomed 7am wake up Fraser Gordon manages to smash out a 55.06 in 100 free with Niki and Michael closely following in low 57’s! Catherine also closely followed the boys with a 60 second 100 free setting a new IC record. Followed again very closely by Zelie Britton in 1.03. Matt Jackson, even feeling unwell manages to pull a 1.07 out of the bag for 100 bk. Also in this event Fraser Gordon reveals himself as not only a freestyle swimmer by finishing in a 1.04 for the 100 bk. Caterina narrowly missed out on 200IM final qualification. Great effort was put in by Meriç and Hayley also in this event, setting some good times at PB levels to start this year off. Also in this event; Morris Po set a new IC record in a time of 2.15. To quote Morris Po before his 200 Breastroke swim: ‘ I don’t want to swim this event because I don’t want to upset former IC record holder; Florian Brock by beating his record’ to which Brad (coach) didn’t think was a viable excuse to drop out. Bad news for Florian- record was broken by Morris In a Time of 2.31. Morris and Caterina continued to shine with their performances in the 200 Bk event- Caterina qualifying for the final and Morris setting a new IC record in a time of 2.13. Scott, whilst modelling the tight blue speedos put out a great performance in both Breastroke events- narrowly missing out on breaking (his own) IC records in both events.
Michael Ingram swam the dreaded 100 fly on Sunday morning whilst the majority of the team stayed in bed/had a cooked breakfast and Catherine similarly battling out in the 200 free setting a new IC record of 2.17. The relays were all swam at times very close to IC records with all 4 boys (Fraser, Scott, Niki and michael) swimming 25’s in the 4*50m free relay. And the girls (Catherine, Hayley, Zelie and Caterina) qualifying for the final on Sunday evening. Morris Po set a new 50m Bk record in the first leg of the boys medley relay in a time of 29.64. The girls ended the competition by finishing in 5th place in the freestyle relay after qualifying in 10th place.
There was not one diasapointing swim all weekend, with everyone performing better than expected for only 5 weeks into training. Overall 8 IC records were broken and 3 BUCS finals were reached- extremely impressive as the finals are normally dominated by either Loughborough/Baths top team swimmers or current GB swimmers!
In summary the following 8 IC records were broken:
Womens 50 Free by Catherine Wrench : 27.71
Womens 50 Bk by Caterina Brighi: 30.91
Womens 100 Free by Catherine Wrench: 1.00.74
Mens 200 IM by Morris Po: 2.15.36
Mens 200m Breast by Morris Po: 2.31.72
Womens 200 Free by Catherine Wrench: 2.17.96
Mens 200 Bk by Morris Po: 2.13.43
Mens 50 Bk by Morris Po: 29.64
Overall, a successful and fun weekend to hopefully be topped by the long course meet in February.
By Hayley Rigby (IC Swimming Captain)