By Sally Carter
On the 29th of November Swansea University swimming team took 16 swimmers to compete at BUCS southern team championships. The team led by captain Stephanie Hanley and vice-captain Jack Brown finished 4th overall in the top division and qualified for national finals, our highest ever finish.
The team was on strong form with many personal best times achieved across the board. The swim of the day had to be in the 50 fly where Josh Philpott claimed our only 1st place with an extremely impressive personal best of 24.93 dominating a strong field of swimmers. He also produced a very strong swim in the 100IM in which he finished 3rd in a time of 59.4. Will Stanhope also showed strong form in the 100 and 200m freestyle races finishing 3rd in both in times of 52.25 and 1.54.33. Another 2 exciting 3rd places were achieved by Oliver Weedon in the 50 and 100m backstroke in times of 26.84 and 57.4. Taking 3rd place with the highest female finish of the team was Sarah Taylor-Reid in the 50m breastroke in a time of 35.23. The last individual top 3 finish was achieved by Laker Wong in the 100 breastroke in a time of 1.07.14 with a nail biting finish 0.07 ahead of Southampton.
In both the freestyle and medley 4x50m relay the boys finished in an exciting 3rd place just behind Bath and Southampton! The medley relay consisting of Oliver Weedon Josh Philpott, Laker Wong and Michael Gray finished in a time of 1.45.1 and the freestyle relay Josh Philpott, Jack Brown, Michael Gray and Oliver Weedon finished in 1.35.11.
It was a great team effort by all members and all are looking forward to the national finals in April!
