The first round of this year’s
Arena league, which took place in Dorchester on Saturday evening, saw Exeter
finish a creditable third ahead of some strong teams.
It was not the happiest of starts.
Hampered by three DQ decisions, we found ourselves just one point off the
bottom after the first ten events, but then things started steadily to
improve. Halfway through the gala we had overhauled North Cornwall Dragons and
Salisbury Stingrays, and were closing in on Poole. The battle for third place was
hard fought, and went to the very last race, in which our second place finish
in the men’s open freestyle was enough to give us the edge.
The team competed very well
throughout, and there were superb victories for Charlotte Emery (10-11yo, 50m
fly and 50m breast), Milly Kendall (10-11yo, 50m free) and Emily Eveling (12-13
yo, 100m back). Charlotte and Milly, together with Amelia Ashelford and Megan
Kennedy-Bruyneels, were also victorious
in the girls' 9-11yo medley relay.
Second-place finishes went to Tom
Price, Emily Eveling, Tom Downs, Matt Ramsay, and the men’s open freestyle
relay team (Warren Barrett, Joe Crispin, Dominic Wooldridge, Adam John, Liam
White and Matthew Henry).
Head Coach Jo John was pleased
with the result: ‘The swimmers gave their all in difficult circumstances,
having been disqualified in three of the first eight relays which would all
have been second places and quite a difference in the overall points tally
earlier in the competition. However, we
fought back well and the determination from the swimmers was exceptional.’
Results will be posted here as
soon as they are available.
