IT WAS a busy weekend for Rugby Swimming Club who took two teams to Wolverhampton for the friendly Trophy Gala.
Despite the distraction of the Rugby World Cup and late withdrawals through injuries, Rugby’s ‘B’ team were a few swimmers short but they had a full contingent for the ‘A’ team for the event which was for swimmers aged 10-14.
The A team had an evening long battle with Solihull-based Blythe Barracudas and Stourbridge A, but managed to come out on top by a good distance.
While the B team also won their own battle with Cheadle and Stourbridge B, thanks to some rousing individual performances, as well as great relays, with the top three often separated by a few hundredths of a second.
One of the standout performers for Rugby was 14-year-old Jack Carey, who achieved a personal milestone by clocking sub 60 in the 100m freestyle event.
Jack had missed the milestone several times before the summer break, on some occasions by less than half a second, but this time around he swam the swimming equivalent of the four-minute mile and will be a a real force to be reckoned with at the club championships.
“I hate to single out swimmers for praise in these team events, as this is a mixture of the young and the inexperienced, as well as the older swimmers with several years racing behind them,” said Rugby Chairman Simon Rigg.
“Having said that, certain swimmers do deserve a mention. Matthew Seaton was on fire as he won all of his races by yards, as well as being massively influential in the relays.
“He has now affectionately become known as ‘The Beast’. Another was Jessica Mackenzie, who came from five yards down in a relay, didn’t breath for the last ten metres, and pipped the swimmer from Stourbridge by 0.01 seconds.
“She was backed up by the likes of Loue Gilroy, Megan Williams, and Maddie Heywood along with huge PBs from others swimmers, too many to mention.
“There were no shortage of personal triumphs in the B team too, with a mix of the experienced to the virtual novices, some swimming up ages as well.
“Isaac Kayada, Clara Haywood, Eddie Haynes, Erin Lloyd, Ben Jones and Jasmine Rigg all stood out. Though all those who swam performed superbly, especially those with less experience of this type of event.”
