Barracudas raise the roof on West view leisure centre
From our poolside reporter, Jayne Elliott
Having watched a few micro teams over the past 10 years I don’t think there are many things that compare to the noise, excitement and team spirit generated by competing in the North West Micro Swimming League.
On Sunday 6th March Leyland Barracudas Micro A team travelled to West View Leisure Centre in Preston to compete in the second of 4 matches and faced some tough opposition from Southport, Preston and Fleetwood.
It’s hard to pick out individuals when every swimmer was fantastic and whether they came first or fourth or somewhere in between every single point they won mattered.
The event comprises of 47 separate events with points awarded for each swim. 16 of the events are team relays and out of those 16 relays Leyland won 8 with no disqualifications awarded against them throughout the whole match.
In the individual events the strength of our youngest swimmers shone through with some outstanding wins – but more importantly we saw 100% effort from everyone.
After 24 events Southport led the way with 72 points closely followed by Leyland who had 67 points. Fighting hard in the individual races and with just eight relays to go Leyland went into the lead reversing the 5-point deficit to a five-point lead. Spurred on by this the team won the next four relays before dropping a few points as we raced to the finish.
With one final race to go the points were read out with Preston in 4th place on 84 points, Fleetwood 3rd with 86 points and tying for the lead Southport and Leyland on 141 points each.
With great excitement the swimmers and poolside helpers lined up along the edge of the pool, Team Manager Gillian Rankin stood by the blocks armed with clip board and stopwatch, and spectators stood up to get a better view.
As silence momentarily descended up stepped our intrepid cannon freestyle relay team with the amazingly fast Erin Morris leading the way followed by some equally brilliant swims by Thomas Owens, Elsie Kay, Max Roberts, Philippa Rankin, Finlay Metcalfe, Megan Ellis, brought home to a tremendous roar from the spectators (and Gill!) by Sebastian Hailwood who not only secured the win but the match.
It was certainly an amazing experience for the swimmers and one that they will hopefully remember for a long time to come.
A huge and collective ‘WELL DONE’ goes out to them all:
Megan Ellis, Maiya Taylor, Yasmin Elliott, Elizabeth Adam, Harry Keogh, Finlay Warburton, Matthew Johnson,SebastianHailwood, Caoimhe Ruscoe, George Watkinson, Elizabeth Bates, Myles Best, Erin Morris, Athena Johnstone, Elsie Kay, Jorgie-Mae-Jones, Max Marie, Daniel Rykowski, Max Roberts, William Taylor, Phillipa Rankin, Pollyanna Hodgson, Rosa Dunbavin, Felicity Coward, Finlay Metcalfe, Oliver Owens, Henry Hodkinson, Joseph Monk, Thomas Owens andElijah Ferson.
Final results:
Leyland A 145
Southport 144
Fleetwood 87
Preston 86