Ashville Junior School swimmers have returned from a national competition with a bronze medal.
At the English Schools National Finals, held in Sheffield, the boys and girls were representing not just their Harrogate school, but the North East of England.
The boys’ medley team of Jacob Brown, Ben Douglas, Lucas Waligora and Oliver Grattoni-May, set a new school record in qualifying for the A final. And, in the final itself, they once again broke the school record to claim a bronze medal.
The girls’ freestyle relay team of Carys Waligora, Sadie Pringle, Agnes Pearson and Annie Meehan also set a new school record in their heat to qualify for the B final. In an incredible performance, the girls lowered the school record by over five seconds.
In the boys’ freestyle relay, Edward Crack replaced Oliver Grattoni-May and, again, a new school record was set with the team comfortably qualifying for the A final. Mirroring the medley team’s performance, the freestyle team finished in bronze position at the same time setting yet another school record, some two seconds faster than its predecessor.
In the girls’ medley relay – where Olivia Parris replaced Agnes Pearson – the team again qualified for the B final, and another Ashville Junior School record was set. In the final the team finished 16th.
Duncan Archer, Head of Sports Development at Ashville College, said:
This was a wonderful day of swimming by all the Ashville Swimmers and I could not be prouder.
Not only were the boys ranked third nationally and the girls 16th, seven school records were broken on seven consecutive swims. This was an outstanding achievement by all our competitors.
And, to round off a fantastic day, Thomas Heneghan-Powell represented the North East in the Para mixed stroke freestyle relays. This was another first for Ashville and in both events the North East finished fourth.
Our swimming teams have had a superb year and this augers well for the 2017/18 season which is less than two months away.
