Wyre Forest Open Meet 2018 : Times & Report

Wolverhampton Central Baths, Wolverhampton, 1st and 2nd December 2018

The last club Open Meet of a busy 2018 saw 33 BASC kids travel to Wolverhampton to take part in the 2 day Wyre Forest SC Open Meet .We went hoping to build on the 319 medals/trophies we had won so far in 2018 – plus adding to the 117 Staffs County QT the amazing swimmers had already generated.

The event is age on the second of the two days – so this weekend the benefit was towards those born January to May – the top 3 in each event were given a medal/trophy – with the age groups being ages 10,11,12,13,14, 15 and 16 plus. As kids from around the west midlands attempt to get county times this was a hotly contested meet – the meet this year was over subscribed before its closing date. It proved to be very long days and credit to all who stuck with us and cheered on the kids to the end in the final heats on each day.

All of the kids had a really great time cheering each other on – sitting at the end of the lanes made this easier but a bit crowded at times as the team spirit saw 6-7 kids cheering the swimmer in a particular race on.

Highlights from the weekend are listed below – we swam 74 PB times, won 21 medals, 51 county times and 4 midland times :-

STAR SWIMMER – Top boy was Jack Ward and Top Girl was Ella Cooper – both won medals and gained MIDLAND times on this meet. They also featured at the top of the medal table for the year and have been alongside Matt Gates and Sophie Fowkes – as a group they became a team of senior swimmers who our junior swimmers have looked up to during 2018.

STAR RACE – Dylan Mitchell smashed his PB in 50m Back and in doing so won the 1,000th medal at an open meet for BASC. Great to see one of our future stars winning this landmark medal and he was rewarded with a club trophy to mark the occasion.

Other highlights –

• Matt Gates was our top medal swimmer at this meet he won 6 of our 21 medals, racing often in the fastest heats he never dipped from around a PB time.
• Caitlin Thomas swam many PB times and was one of the few to do all 4 sessions
• Amelie Spiers and Charlie Miller joining the group of children with county QT by getting 50m fly and 50m back respectively
• Sophie Fowkes’ club record time in narrowly missing the 200m breast QT
• Oliver Frost, George Stevens, Jack Ward Georgia Ulyett, George Preston and Lana Clamp all added new events to their county QT haul.
• Freya Smith overcoming nerves as our youngest swimmer to take a new PB in 50m Breast
• A great heat where young guns Lucas Joubert, Harry Preston and Josh Cooper all pushed each other on in a great heat.

10 new county times being achieved to take us to 127 times achieved by a very impressive 24 different swimmers for the County Championships in February 2019. A RECORD NUMBER OF QUALIFIERS IS ANOTHER GREAT ACHIEVEMENT IN THE RECORD BREAKING 2018.

The league tables with one meet to go are below – 60 kids have done an open with A RECORD 37 different kids winning at least 1 medal – they have now won an amazing 340 medals in 2018 which is a clear new CLUB RECORD so well done all of the swimmers

Boys Top 4:

Girls Top 4:

Thanks as always to Simon and Ian for the guidance and assurance offered to and all the parents for cheering them all on – and Rob & Andy for sending the kids to race on day 1 – and Paul on day 2.

Special mention to Craig, Chris and Martin who all officiated on behalf of the club.