Sevenoaks swimmers produced a night of superb swimming in Round 1 of the National Arena League with the A team heading off early for their journey to the City of Oxford while the B team headed off to the familiar waters of hosts, Erith & District at Crook Log.
The A team were up against formidable opposition facing friendly rivals, Amersham, Woking, Guildford City B Team and Maxwell. They had a fantastic night and were in great form with 16 wins out of 50 events which was impressive against such excellent opposition.
A superb performance from the under-11 girls kicked off the night with the first win in the Freestyle relay which they replicated later in the Medley relay. Not to be outdone the under-13 boys and the under-15 boys were also in extremely fine fettle and won both their Freestyle and Medley relays too.
These teams were joined in winning by Jacob Hudson (under-13) 100m breaststroke shortly followed by Izabella Okaro (under-11) 50m butterfly. Both Millie Childs & Euan Terry (under-13) put in solid wins in the 100m backstroke and then Eva Okaro (under-11) won convincingly in the 50m breaststroke. They were joined in their wins by Frankie Whiting (under-15) who broke one minute in the 100m freestyle immediately followed by Nathan Rodrigues (under-15) also in the 100m freestyle.
In the youngest age group Eva Okaro was back in the pool smashing the 50m freestyle, quickly followed by Zac Raymond (under-13) in the 100m freestyle – both very outstanding swims. 14 year old Ben Ward had a very convincing win in the (under-15) breaststroke. Other superb efforts were produced by Rose Compton (14) swimming up two age groups in the 200m individual medley in the open age group and gaining an excellent third place, with Zoe Naylor -Perrot and Maddy Glen both 14, also swimming in the open age group with Zoe gaining an important third place. Maddy also produced a great swim in the under-15 100m breaststroke with an excellent second place.
Enabling Sevenoaks to gain ground with 2nd placings were youngsters Isla Murphy, Albert Whitlock & Macaulay Johnston (all under-11) in the 50m backstroke, breaststroke & butterfly. Frankie Whiting also swam superbly to gain second place in the 100m backstroke (under-15) and the 100m freestyle swimming up in the open age group with Seb Stewart grabbing a great second place in the 100m breaststroke (open).
Both Chris Cheng and Ellis Stanhope also swam excellent races to bring home third place in the open and under-15 100m butterfly, with Ben Strebel replicating them in the under-13’s. Lillie Chambers also won third in a hard-fought race in the (under-13) 100m freestyle.
With strength in all areas Sevenoaks proved formidable in the relays gaining second places, in addition to the aforementioned first places in the girls under-13 medley and freestyle, along with the under-15 girls and the under-11 boys medley relay. The evening culminated in the exciting six-man open relay with Sevenoaks bringing home a fabulous third place.
The final results were: City of Oxford 242, Sevenoaks 219, Amersham 167, Woking 148, Guildford City B 137 and Maxwell 133
The B Team had yet another successful arena round despite being up against some very tough opposition. They faced local rivals Erith & District and Orpington, Shepway, Mid Sussex Marlins and Hastings Seagulls.
The team consisted of a very young squad with an incredible 10 swimmers swimming up in age groups. Despite this they managed a total of 21 first or second placings with the under-11 girls team picking up four first places. Of those, including first place in the freestyle and medley relays for this age group, Millie Armstrong and Rose Deacon both gained individual first places in the 50m back & breaststroke. Other first placings came from George Tyler (16) in the 100m butterfly open age group and Teddy Wallace in the 100m freestyle (under-15) with Oscar Wilson (14) grabbing a tight first place in the 100m Breaststroke (under-15).
In the under-13 team the girls managed a superb second place in the freestyle and medley relays with both the under-11 & under-15 boys fighting hard for second place in the medley relay. Both Megan Marter and Elsbeth Watson went on to swim incredible races to pull off a fabulous second place for both in the (under-13) 100m breaststroke & butterfly individual races. Whereas in the youngest age group other second places were gained with William Jarrett in the 50m butterfly and Zac Howard in the 50m breaststroke along with the girls 50m freestyler Sami Das.
In the under-15 age group, Aiden McMillan gained a second place in the 100m butterfly along with Sarah Williams in the 100m breaststroke. Aiden (14) also raced in the men’s open age 200m individual medley with Amy Farthing swimming in the open ladies and grabbing a close second place which she replicated in the open 100m freestyle and butterfly.
The all-important third places were gained by the boys under-13 medley relay, Ben Channon in the 100m backstroke (under-15) and Sami Das in the 50m butterfly. Joining them in their superb swimming were Charlotte Prideaux & Tom Creasey in the 100m backstroke, along with both 100m freestylers Imogen Stoddart and Marcus Humphry and finally Noah Enticknap in the 100m butterfly all swimming in the under-13 age group. Further third places were gained by Aoife Lauerman (14) in the 100m fly under-15 and George Tyler in the open age 100m Breaststroke.
Other great performances were produced by Jonathan Vowell, Oshi Hamilton, Jazzy Wallace, Phoebe Brockington, Laura Wright, Thomas Hunt, Eddie Hammond, Millie Lodge, Ollie Coote & Dominic Percy.
Final positions were: Mid Sussex Marlins 240, Hastings Seagulls 203, Sevenoaks B 194, Erith & District 155, Orpington Ojays 132 and Shepway 125.
Well done to all the swimmers for their exceptional performances and hopefully they can keep the momentum going into the next round.
