Cranleigh School took a team to the annual Guildford District Championships last Saturday and were always going to be up
against it as they were missing five swimmers from their squad.
The U15 boys relay team, consisting of Rafe Scott, Jack Talbot, Joe Fulton and Max St. John were the first to compete and blew away the opposition to claim both the Medley Relay and Freestyle Relay titles. The real magic with this team is that every member of the team was swimming one year under age with the exception of Rafe, which will put the rest of the team on notice for next year.
The U15 girls were struck by bad luck with injuries prior to the event but they showed their depth coming away with two 2nd place finishes in the relays just behind the current National Champions Guildford High. A full strength team would have made this a race to watch.
The senior boys led by example with two more 2nd place finishes. The team of Tom Berry, Angus Burns, Max FitzGerald and Captain Ollie Taylor managed to hold off swimming giants Charterhouse in both relay contests to take the silver medal position.
A series of consistent top three finishes along with excellent times in the individual races followed, and this allowed the boys to claim the overall boys championship for the first time in four years and only the 2nd time in Cranleigh’s history.
Head of Swimming, Will Philpot, commented: ‘This was a great meet for us considering we had just come back from a four week break, and everyone kept their spirits high despite the number of absences we had. Key swimmers were missing and that could’ve put us in a much stronger position overall but I’m still very happy with everyone’s performances.’
The swim team now begin preparation for the Bath Cup National Swimming Championships on March 13th.
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