AST Burnham enjoy an exciting and successful day at the County Championships

The Somerset County Championships for 2024 got off to an earlier than usual start with the 100M Individual Medley and Relay events brought forward from their usual opening weekend slot in January to the middle of October. The Academy Swim Team continued where they left off in February this year at the 2023 Championships by again setting new records for the team. This was their highest number of 100M Medley qualifiers (23 in total) with 7 qualifying for finals (also a new record) and 2 medals won. The Relay Teams also had their most successful Counties yet by winning 4 medals in total and finishing 4th in four other relay events, showcasing how competitive the whole squad now is at County level.

The day started with the Boys 100M Medley Heats and saw some impressive new Personal Best times by Killian Faubel (11), Leo Woodrow (12), Harry Glanville (12), Xander Powell (13), Aaron Mawby (14), Zach Powell (15), TT Magang (15) and Lewis Duggan (17). Killy, Leo, Xander, Zach and Lewis all qualified for their respective finals later in the morning session.

The Relay events then got underway with the excitement levels and noise going up a notch. The Girls 10-12 200M Medley Relay team of Emily Druce, Aurelia Power, Lauren Glanville and Evie Rowley-Wall were the first team up and they dropped a few seconds under their entry time to improve their ranking from 9th to 7th in a high quality field. The Girls 13-14 Medley squad of Thea Faubel, Eleanor Rees, Olivia Matthews and Phoebe Poole followed suit by also dropping several seconds under their entry time, but just missed out on the medals in 4th place.

The Boys 10-12 200M Medley squad comprising Leo Woodrow, Toby Baker, Ryan Smout and Harry Glanville then made up for the disappointment of being DQ’d in 3rd Place back in January by going one better, finishing 2nd and winning the first Silver Medal of the day.

The Relays then switched to the 200M Free where AST Burnham were able to enter multiple teams. For the 10-12 Girls Lorelai Jimmieson, Bella Gold, Charlotte Chard and Imogen Mawby dropped their entry time by over 6 seconds, before Emily, Aurelia, Lauren and Evie repeated their efforts in the Medley by again dropping their entry time and improving their ranking from 9th to 7th. Agnes Alexander joined the 13-14 Girls Freestyle Relay Team alongside Phoebe, Olivia and Eleanor where they again dropped their entry time and finished in 4th place, improving their ranking from 5th.

For the 10-12 boys Arthur Astill, Toby Baker, Harry Power and Killian Faubel were first up in the 200M Free Relay and acquitted themselves well in 9th place, before Henry Matthews joined Ryan, Harry and Leo from the Medley Team and they went on to bag the Bronze Medal in another highly competitive race.

The standard continued to be raised as the heats progressed and the Boys 13-14 Team of Jay Duggan, Aaron Mawby, Oscar Anderson and Xander Powell competed hard to match their seeding in 9th place.

Killian, Leo, Xander, Zach and Lewis Duggan then took part in the IM finals to finish off the morning session. Killian (11) finished in 8th place, Xander (13) and Lewis (17) finished in 6th place, whilst Leo (12) won the Bronze medal and Zach (15) the Silver in their respective finals.

The Girls 100M Individual Medley kicked off the afternoon session and saw some further impressive results with Imogen Mawby (11), Charlotte Chard (11), Lorelai Jimmieson (11), Evie Rowley-Wall (12), Agnes Alexander (13), Matilda Taylor (13), Eleanor Rees (14) and Thea Faubel (14) all setting new PB’s with Eleanor and Macy Noad (16) qualifying for their respective finals.

The Under and Over 15’s Relays then began with AST Burnham entering 4 teams across the various events. In the Boys 15 & Under 200M Medley Relay Xander Powell, Zach Powell, TT Magang and Lewis Hay produced a fast performance, dropping their entry time by over 4 seconds but having to settle for 4th place overall in another high quality field. Their time would come though as against a lot of the same swimmers they dropped their 200M Free Relay entry time by over 6 seconds to win a great Bronze medal in another exciting race.

The Mixed 15 & Over Relay Teams then produced a similar performance. The Medley Team of Lewis Hay, Kelsey Webber, Lewis Duggan and Macy Noad produced a great swim that saw them jump from being the 11th seeded team to finish 4th. The Freestyle Relay Team of Lewis Duggan, Macy, Kelsey and Zach Powell then went one better, going from being ranked 12th at the start to finishing 3rd and picking up another excellent Bronze medal.

Eleanor (14) and Macy (16) then took part in the IM Finals where they finished 5th and 8th respectively to round off a good day for the Academy Swim Team. Head Coach Sara Flinton took a lot of enjoyment from watching the performances of the team throughout the day. She said “What a blast we had at Millfield, firstly with medals for the Boys 10-12 Relays, two 4th places for the 13-14 Girls and multiple IM finalists with excellent time reductions across the board. There was a great return to form for Lewis Hay and an outstanding split from Zach Powell that helped the 15 & Under Teams get a 4th and 3rd place with some seriously exciting races. The Over 15’s also produced some cracking splits in picking up their 4th and 3rd place finishes.”

The IM results from this weekend can be viewed here and the Relay results can be viewed here. All the relay races from the morning session were also recorded and can be viewed below.

Relay Races From Morning Session 1