16 Jun 2007 - 2nd Division team move onwards and upwards at Arbroath

The 2nd Division team travelled down to Arbroath for the third of their divisional galas on Sat 16th June.

We were a couple of relay teams down with a number of our likely 10 & U's girls being unavailable due to the Muirhead Minnows gala also being held at the same time (bad planning, but I heard they all did well so that was a bonus !). We still had six of our eight relay teams so were feeling reasonably confident that if we all swam to our ability, we would do fine.

The first round of relays saw us sitting in second place just behind host club Monifieth who had a full team in all the age groups and were obviously intent on making an impression in their home gala and moving up the league towards safety.

Into the individuals in the next round and good points being put on the board by the junior swimmers saw us take the lead with the seniors adding to them.

As the next two individual rounds were completed, it was apparent that Monifieth were indeed strong at this gala as they forged ahead to take a comfortable 10 point lead over the others. Our position in second was not looking so comfortable at this point as only four points separated us in second from Montrose and Aberfeldy in joint fourth. This was going to be a closely fought thing if we were to get second spot !!

The last round of the individual swims saw St Thomas jump into second spot with some great swims. For ourselves it was again the valuable points from our younger swimmers that gave us a cushion away from the bottom two.

As has been said before, it was those with full relay teams who prospered in the final round freestyle relays with Monifieth forging even further ahead to take a well deserved victory. Our 10 & U boys did brilliantly to take 2nd place (pretty good with us having 7 and 8 year olds against the older swimmers from the other clubs) that set us up for the seniors to again chip in with a full 20 points from the last four relays to secure a good 2nd spot.

There were a number of great PB's, two which stood out were at the 13/14 breaststroke where firstly Hannah Ward did a superb 1.27 which would stand her in good stead in even higher leagues and then Cody Kirkland followed this with a 4 sec PB of his own to win in 1.43 and Cody still has next year to compete at this age group.

 

This division is developing into a very close fought race, with any of the teams looking capable of substantially adding to their points in the last two galas. Let's hope it is us !!

Likely 2nd Div swimmers should note that the next gala is on Sat 18th August, again at Arbroath.

 

Full result

1st     Monifieth        150    5 points

2nd    DCA               135    4

3rd    St Thomas       130    3

4th    Aberfeldy       121     2

5th    Montrose         119     1

 

Overall positions after 3 of the 5 galas

1st    St Thomas        12 points

2nd    DCA                10

3rd    Monifieth         9

4th    Montrose          8

5th    Aberfeldy        6