LET’S GO LEYLAND – LET’S GO!!
On Saturday 13 November 27 swimmers eagerly boarded the coach at Leyland Leisure Centre and set off to Manchester to compete for the Leyland Barracudas A Team in their first external team competition for nearly two years.
The team were swimming in the Arena Swimming League North West First Division match at Sale against teams from Flixton, Satellite, Carlisle and Blackburn.
In a slightly different format than usual the league was set up to run over just two weekends this year with no teams being promoted or relegated following the finals on 11th December.
The Leyland team comprised of swimmers split between four separate age groups: 9-11 years old, 13 and under, 15 and under and an open age category.
The first event of the night was the ladies open 200 metre individual medley swum by Amelie Elliott followed by Kyle Mckenna in the men’s open 200 individual medley. Right from the first whistle the support for the swimmers from other team members on poolside, coaches, helpers and spectators was tremendous.
Leyland’s first win came in the mixed 9-11 year old freestyle relay which was swum by Megan Ellis, Sebastian Hailwood, Elizabeth Adam and Johnny Wright.
A further win – and the much prized high five from Chief Coach Gillian Rankin – followed in the 15/under mixed freestyle relay with a personal best time for Danielle Brady and a blisteringly fast last leg from Leo Taylor who also achieved a fantastic personal best time.
Further wins followed in the mixed open medley relay, the mixed 9-11 medley relay and 15 and under mixed medley relay meaning that out of a total of 8 relay events Leyland won five of them!
The individual events saw wins for Johnny Wright, Leo Taylor, Jack Hepplestone, Kyle Mckenna, Finlay Warburton, Emily Wade, Megan Ellis, Amelie Elliott and Tom Arkwright.
The whole team did exceptionally well and supported one another throughout. Stand out performances saw Emily Wade battle to win the 100-metre butterfly securing a personal best time and fighting all the way to the end to secure the win. Tom Arkwright looked like he was literally flying through the water in the men’s open 100 metre race and there were good individual swims by all the 11-year-olds who were new to competing in the Arena league.
A special mention must go to the 12 year old boys – Tom Jepson and Rhys Pownall – who both swam two 100 metre individual events each and also competed in the two 13 and under mixed relays. They quite literally ‘swam their hearts out’ swimming personal best times in all but one race. Up against older boys they battled to win points for the team and showed massive commitment and determination making Chief Coach, Gillian Rankin, enormously proud of their achievements.
Overall there were a total of 21 personal best times recorded which really shows how hard everyone had tried and as the scores were read out throughout the competition Leyland were consistently holding second place and slowly closing the gap on the leaders.
As the event drew to a close the final swim of the night was the mixed open freestyle relay with the final leg swum by Poppy Elliott who clung on to secure second place. Proud of our reputation as a family club it was touching to see Amelie Elliott swim the opening event of the competition, older sister Poppy swim the last event of the night and 11-year-old Yasmin get in on the act to swim to. I’m not sure if three siblings in the one team is a club record but it was certainly quiet in the Elliott house that night!!
After an exciting and enjoyable match Leyland secured second place with the final points tally being:
Satellite – 160 points
Leyland Barracudas – 152 points
Flixton – 127 points
Blackburn – 99 points
Carlisle – 92 points