Strong Traditions at Hull Easter Meet
The trip to the east coast at Easter is always one of the highlights for the younger end of the club. Ennerdale pool often encourages excellent performances, and coming as it does, in the middle of long course season, boosts confidence with a brief return to short course racing. For many, it's also a good excuse to stay over in the nearby Premier Inn and make happy memories of a 3 day away meet. This year followed those traditions and served up an outstanding set of results for our younger performance squads.
A 94% PB ratio speaks for itself. Included in that was the usual muddle of first time performances at some of the big, scary, "Animal" events.
So many times has the Hull Easter meet been used to introduce our younger athletes to the 200m Butterfly, it's become an Easter rite of passage. Dartes swimmers (especially the girls) tend to dominate and have done for a decade, 2022 was no different. Six age groups brought us four medals. Gold for one of our first-timers Brooke Dickinson (Arm) with a respectable 3:09.99.
Following her in the 11 years was fellow first-timer Darcy Nelson (Ros) for the Silver.
The next age group up saw our third first-timer claiming another Silver medal. Ruby Wakelin (Ros) braving a Butterfly double the hard way - 200m to close down Saturday afternoon and only taking on the 100m for the first time the day after. Has anyone else attempted the 200m before the 100m? Frightening!
For no other reason than everyone else got a mention, Jessica Eggitt (Ros) also did it and chopped nearly 5sec off her PB from January. Great job.
To round off the girls 200m Fly, veteran Violet Sykes (Adw) romped home for another Gold medal.
The next day, Harris Chapman (Ros) added himself to the 200m Butterfly club for another Gold medal.
As a first time event, the 200m Butterfly tends to be feared more than the 400m IM. Once you've done a few however, many quickly realise it's the longer race that hurts the most. No such fear for Brooke though, she was still to experience both when Friday night rolled around. Her 6:11.33 opened her big medley account with a Silver medal.
For the boys, it fell to Cohen Leonard (Adw) to fly the flag and attempt this grueller for the first time. A Bronze medal in 5:57.33 was his reward.
Friday nights are usually reserved for the bigger events at 3-day open meets. At the big level 1 qualifying meets that Performance 5 have attended recently, it's usually the 1500m/800m combo. At level 3 meets such as this one, it's often the pair of 400s. Our girls did their best to dominate the 400m Freestyle too.
In the 11 year olds we had three in action out of eleven competitors. None of them had attempted it before. The result was Gold at the first attempt for Phoebe Weatherill (Edl). Silver at the first attempt for Jessica Hubery (Drn). You can guess what's next. Bronze at the first attempt for Lexie Goddard (Drn).
Another trio took the 12 years age group by the scruff of the neck too. Grace-Lily Lazenby (Arm) smashed 24sec from her January PB for Gold. Ruby Wakelin (Ros) added another first time event to her repertoire, while Lily Cattlin (Edl) also returned and knocked off a big chunk of time.
It certainly wasn't her first 400m Freestyle, but Isabelle Child (Arm) picked up another Gold in the 14 years age group, ahead of Bronze medal winning Grace Blair (Adw).
Following them, the boys stepped up too. Adam Robinson (Ros) taking the Bronze medal at his first attempt. Lawrence Chapman (Ros) returned for a Silver, while his brother Harris and Noah Brown (Adw) also updated their previous bests.
There were plenty of other swimmers attempting races for the first time, and we encourage everyone to have a crack at every event over the course of the season. We can't possibly cover everything though, but those are the scary ones ticked off.
In all, 200 swims brought home 28 Gold medals, 41 Silver medals, and 26 Bronze.
Which brings us onto the swim of the weekend.
We've seen a lot of action this season involving our older girls. Club records have been smashed, passed around, re-claimed, and smashed some more between Molly Chambers (Drn) and Madison. Between them they seem to have sparked a Butterfly vibe around the younger girls.
In the 50m Fly on Sunday morning, three Golds went to our girls (out of 7). Emilia Keefe (Spa) led the way, and Millie Dey (Arm) followed suit.
Not only that, but Lexie, Grace-Lily, and Grace Blair followed up with matching Silver. Rose Keefe (Spa) also got her hands on a Bronze.
The eagle-eyed will have noticed a missing Gold up there. Nearly 2sec ahead of Lexie's Silver in the 11 year olds, was Phoebe in 33.40. What's so special about a 50m Gold you're wondering?
Well that swim knocked 0.46sec off her age-group's Dartes record that used to belong to our current senior girls record holder Madison Johnson (Arm). What more excuse did we need for an impromptu photo op?
Records are there to be beaten - great one Phoebe.
