North East Regional Short Course Meet Report
Aquatic Centre, Sunderland
Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th December 2014

Kingston upon Hull swimming club sent their top swimmers from a number of their squads to Sunderland to compete in their final short course meet of the year, the North East Counties Championships at the Sunderland international pool. The results from this gala proved to be the most successful NER championships for a number of years with the club collecting a staggering 16 top three place finishes with a further five swimmers making the final placings.

National Squad

Shannon McGahey aged 15 successfully achieved this in the 400m im by posting a personal best in her heat knocking 4 seconds off in a time of 5.01.92. In the final Shannon improved her time again posting 5.01.78 which saw her finish in 4th place in the junior category. A personal best was also posted in the 200m im, another in the 200m backstroke, knocking 3 seconds off. The final personal best time came in the 200m butterfly.

Daisy Hill aged 15 competed in the 800m freestyle which was heat declared winner. Daisy had a fantastic race smashing her personal best by knocking off an amazing 17 seconds posting a new time of 9.24.30 which secured her 5th place in the junior category.

Hannah Willingham aged 15 posted 5 personal best times in 100 & 200m breaststroke, 50 & 100m butterfly and final personal best in the 400m im.

Abigail Stringer aged 15 competed in two events the 50m and 100m breaststroke. In the 50m breaststroke Abi posted a personal best in a new time of 37.11.

Alexandra Stringer aged 14 years swam for the first time in this category and did not disappoint. Alex posted 4 personal bests over the weekend and her best achievement was in the 200m breaststroke which Alex knocked 4 seconds off posting a new time 2.44.79. Further improvements made in the 50 & 100m breaststroke, with a new time of 1.17.77. Final personal best posted in the 100m butterfly.

Will Costello aged 15 swam a personal best in the 50m freestyle in a new time of 26.38. Will also had strong swims in the 100 & 200m freestyle events.

Bailey Hairsine aged 15 had a successful weekend by posting 7 personal best times. In the 100m freestyle a new time of 0.57.12 posted. A 3 second improvement in the 200m freestyle 2.00.53 and 2 seconds knocked off his 400m freestyle with a new time of 4.14.02 which secured a silver medal in the junior category. Further improvements came in the 200m backstroke in a time of 2.13.62, in the 100m breaststroke with a new time of 1.15.52. Final improvement came in the 400m im with a time of 4.46.62.

Elliott Stephenson aged 16 swam in the 1500m freestyle and finished in 10th place in the senior category.

Swimmers also had success in relays. In the men's open 400m medley team, Bailey Hairsine, Oche Igoche, Devon Van Der Westhulzen and Elliott Stephenson finished 8th place. The girls improved on finishing place by coming 6th in the same event, team consisted of Jace Cappleman, Shannon McGahey, Alexandra Stringer and Yasmin Brown. The boys came out on top in the 400m freestyle team finishing 6th place; team consisted of Oche, Devon, Will and Elliott, the girls’ finished 7th place, team consisting of Jace, Shannon, Yasmin and Daisy. The teams matched each other in the final relay of 800m freestyle both finishing in 7th place. Boys’ team members were Devon, Bailey, Will and Elliott and the girls were, Jace, Shannon, Melissa Machin and Hannah.

In the Age group category Aleah Ross aged 13 best finishes came in the 100m breaststroke claiming 5th place and in the 100m freestyle finished in 6th place. Adam Alcock aged 14 secured personal best times in 100m butterfly and 200m backstroke.

Regional A Squad

Competing for the regional A squad were 18 year old Oche Igoche, 15 year old Kaso Kareem, 14 year old Jack Woodcock, 19 year old Natalie Moon and 14 year old Melissa Machin.

All were swimming in the senior championship, it was sprint specialist Oche competing in the 50m 100m freestyle and 50m breaststroke in all his races he lowered his personal best times and was rewarded with a silver medal in the 50m freestyle in a time of 23.06. Jack qualified in 5 races, getting back to true form he produced two personal best times in the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly. For Kaso it was his first taste of the championship swimming in the 50m freestyle, Kaso recorded a time of 27.30. Also competing in her first championship was Melissa, she showed true determination in her races with equalling her 100m freestyle entry time and swimming to a 1 sec personal best in both the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly.

Natalie, swimming alongside some of the best swimmers in the North East, swam in the S14 category; Natalie secured Gold in the 50m fc, two silvers in the 200m and 50m breast stroke as well as a bronze in the 100m breast.

Junior A Squad

Joe Basdeo-Taylor, 12, managed an impressive 9 qualifying times and won 2 golds, 4 silvers and a bronze medal. The gold medals came in the 200IM and the 400IM, the 4 silvers came in the 100 and 200m breaststroke and the 100 and 200m fly. The bronze medal came in the 400m freestyle.

Elizabeth Hawkard, 12, competed in the 100m Fly and Finished in 12th position, her second event was the 100m backstroke where she finished 15th with a new PB time of 1.15.81

Alex Everson, 12, swum pbs in 100m backstroke and 200m butterfly finishing both races in the top 10.

Amy Corcoran, 12, competed in 6 events and achieved 6 pb finishes. In the 200m freestyle she finished in 7th position. In the 200m IM she finished in 6th place position in a time of 2.38.30 with another 6th place finish in the 100m fly. She had two, 5th place finishes in the 200m breaststroke and in the 200m fly. Amy’s best finish came in the 100m breaststroke where a time of 1.20.94 gave her 2nd position and silver medal.

Frances Luckup, 12, competed in 2 events; in the 200m backstroke she gained a 1 second pb finishing in 14th place. In the 800m freestyle she achieved a 6th place finish.

Megan Gray, 11, competed in 7 events over the weekend. In the 100m freestyle she matched her existing pb and finished in 5th place. She gained a 1 second pb in both the 100m breaststroke and the 100m backstroke. In the 200m backstroke and 200m IM she gained 2 second pb’s, with the IM placing in 10th position. In the 200m freestyle she finished in 6th position with a 3 second pb and a new time of 2.21.66. Megan gained the biggest pb in the 400m freestyle with a 9 second improvement and a gold medal.

Lewis Collins, 13, had 7 swims over the weekend and gained 6 new pb times. He achieved 11th place finishes in the 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke and 200m IM. In the 200m backstroke a new pb time of 2.26.31 gave Lewis a 9th place finish. In the 100m freestyle Lewis finished in 7th place and finally broke the minute barrier finishing in a new time of 59.95s. in the 200m freestyle he achieved a 6 second pb finishing in 5th place but his best event of the weekend was the 400m freestyle where a massive 19 second pb gave him a bronze medal finish.

Evie Lees, 12, competed in 5 events and gained 4 pb’s. In the 100m breaststroke she finished in 7th position with a 1 second pb. In the 200m freestyle she gained a 4 second pb finishing in 5th position. The 200m breaststroke was a 2 second pb and a 6th place finish. Evie’s best finish of the weekend was the 200m IM where a 3 second pb gave her a 4th place finish.

Junior B Squad

Junior B had a strong representative at this year’s North East Regional Winter Championships. Congratulations to all those who qualified, including Katrina Brown in the 50m freestyle and Callum Wright who were both competing for the first time.

The first event of the weekend was the boy’s 1500m freestyle and Junior B was represented by Callum Wright, 13, who did not disappoint, not letting nerves get the better of him he knocked 18.31 seconds off his recently achieved time and gained a well-deserved 4th place. Wright swam again on the Sunday morning in the 200m freestyle and produced an impressive 6 second PB in a time of 2:11.64 and 7th place.

Carter Lees, 11, was competing in the 100m backstroke and a determined swim produced a new PB of 1:18.09, 4th place and qualifies him for next summer’s NER’s.

Having qualified in almost all events Callum Willert 10, put in a Stella performance across the board with a hat trick of golds. His first event of the weekend, the 200m breaststroke set the tone with almost a 4 second PB and a time of 3:05.05 comprehensively gaining him his first gold of the championships. Gold number two came in the 200m IM with a 1 second PB and a time of 2:45.88, beating the competition by a comfortable 3 seconds. He completed his hat trick on the second day in the 100m breaststroke, in a time of 1:30.84. There was bronze in the 200m freestyle in a time of 2:32.88. Willert didn’t drop out of the top 5 in his other events with PB’s in the 100m freestyle, 4 seconds and a time of 1:10.99. He knocked 3 seconds off both his 100m and 200m backstroke in times of 1:23.04 and 2:44.21 respectively. There was another 3 seconds off his 100m butterfly in a time of 1:21.98.

In the girls events 10 year old Molly Green swam a decisive race in the 100m fly racing to the end, and knocking 2 seconds off to win gold in a time of 1:19.31, beating some tough competition and qualifying for the 2015 NER championships. She knocked a massive 7 seconds off her 200m breaststroke to get 4th place in a time of 3:14.75 and 4th place. It was top ten places for Green in the rest of her events, in the 100m breast stroke a 4 second PB gave her a time of 1.31.40 and 2 second PB’s in the 200IM and 200m freestyle saw her achieve 7th and 9th place respectively.

Clementine Lovel, 11, put in strong performances over the weekend. In the 200m freestyle she achieved 5th place in a time of 2:21.20 with a 4 second PB and a 3 second PB in the 200m backstroke that saw her gain a time of 2:45.84. In very competitive and closely contested 100m freestyle she shaved a fraction of a second off her previous best to get 6th place, in a time of 1:05.33. It was another 3 second PB in the 100m backstroke and a time of 1:15.93 that gave her 7th place and represents hard work in this event over the last few months.