The City of Sunderland ASC Junior swimmers started their 2011 season looking to improve upon last season’s second place finish in Division 1 of the Durham and District Junior League, facing opposition from Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Tynemouth, Chester-le Street, Newburn and Alnwick.

In this round at the Hebburn Pool, the city’s twelve year old girl’s team – Jodi Bunker, Amy Henshaw, Lauren Patterson, Jennifer Sharp and Jay Whitehead - led the way with a series of point scoring performances. The girls took first place in the medley relay and second spot in the freestyle relay. This was followed up by some fine individual performances from Lauren Patterson who finished first in the 50m freestyle and second in the 50m butterfly and Jodi Bunker who won the 50m breaststroke event.

The eleven year old boy’s team – Callum Dann, Matthew Phillips, Joseph Pomfret and Matthew Walker-Smith - also enjoyed a successful day with Joseph Pomfret winning the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly while Matthew Walker-Smith took second spot in the 50m backstroke. The eleven year old girl’s team – Jazmine Moss, Beth Nicholson, Bethany Star-Cooper and Lola Tindle – also chipped with the points led by a winning performance from Beth Nicholson in the 50m backstroke.

Junior league debutants Pardis Farahi, Lara Greggs, Laura Smith, Jessica Thornton, Luke Cullen, Joseph Marsh, Joseph Whelan and Joshua Wright all performed well in the nine year old age group, while ten year olds Alisha Ballantine, Aimee Hansen, Charlotte Jurgens, Molly Robinson, JJ Robins, Ethan Shaw, Kye Symington and Stone Wallace also contributed to the city’s points total. The twelve year old boy’s team of James Brewerton, Thomas Burns, Joseph Pomfret and William Robinson also went on to take third place in the freestyle relay.

The Sunderland team finished the day in fifth spot, behind Tynemouth, Newcastle, Stockton and Chester -le- Street, with two more rounds to go to determine which teams qualify for the final round where the victors go through to the regional finals.

The City of Sunderland’s Adam Taylor was in scintillating form at the British Gas Northumberland and Durham Championships held at the Neptune Centre, Middlesbrough, taking six gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle events, 100m and 200m backstroke events and the 200m butterfly. Adam also won silver medals in the 100m butterfly and 400m individual medley – an outstanding performance that secured him the overall fourteen year old championship title.

The City of Sunderland Girls relay teams won both of the freestyle events, with Lucy Walton, Laura Taylor, Lauren Patterson and Gabrielle Burdess, taking the 800m freestyle title in 9.16.53 – over five seconds ahead of their City of Newcastle rivals. The girls repeated this in the 400m freestyle event to once again take the gold medals ahead of Newcastle in a time of 4.18.81.

The 11-14 boys quartet of Andrew Markham, James Burns, Jordan Henry and Adam Taylor picked up silver in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay and a bronze in the 4 x 100m freestyle event.
Relay star Lucy Walton also excelled in the individual events, taking the gold medals in the 200m backstroke, 200m and 400m individual medley events, as well as silver medals in the 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke events. Lucy’s performances also won the thirteen year old championship title.

Eleven year old Jodi Bunker had a busy championship taking the 200m breaststroke and 400m individual medley gold medals, her time in this event has placed her third in the 11 yr old national rankings, the 200m and 400m freestyle, 100m and 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley silver medals and 100m and 200m backstroke, 100m breaststroke and 100m individual medley bronze medals, to take second place in the championship table.
Thomas Burns also finished runner up in the eleven year old championship table, with silver medals in the 400m freestyle, 400m individual medley, and bronze medals in the 100m and 200m backstroke and also the 200m individual medley. Eleven year old Joseph Pomfret also chipped in with a bronze medal in the 200m butterfly.

Ten year old Beth Nicholson bulleted her way to gold medals in the 200m freestyle and 50m backstroke events and silver in the 50m freestyle to take the 10 yr old Championship third spot, while in the twelve year old age group Laura Taylor took the 400m gold and 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke silver medals, with Jessica Thompson taking the 400m individual medley silver medal and bronze medals in the 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley events.

Also making finals for the club, many for the first time were Callum Reveley, Freya Rayner, James Burns, Adam Jurgens, Lauren Patterson, Jordan Henry, Jay Whitehead, Ashlyn Liddle, Andrew Markaham and Gabrielle Burdess.

Twenty five swimmers from the City of Sunderland ASC contributed to the clubs impressive haul of 70 medals at the Durham City AA Graded Meet, with the city swimmers amazingly sweeping the board in eight events by taking the gold, silver and bronze medals in the eleven year old girls 100m backstroke and the twelve year old girls 100m and 200m freestyle, as well as the thirteen year old boys 100m freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke and individual medley events.
Blazing the trail for Sunderland was twelve year old Freya Rayner who topped the podium in the freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and individual medley events at 100m with silver in the 200m freestyle. Fellow twelve year old Gabrielle Burdess took the 200m freestyle gold to add to silver medals in the 100m freestyle, backstroke and individual medley.
Pick of the bunch for the boys was thirteen year old Andrew Markham who took the 100m backstroke and individual medley titles, together with silver in the 100m freestyle, closely followed by eleven year old Joseph Pomfret who took gold medals in the 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly.
Ten year old Beth Nicholson took the 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly gold medals together with silver medals in the 50m freestyle, 50m breaststroke and 100m individual medley, while thirteen year old Ashlyn Liddle secured the 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly golds’, adding to her 100m freestyle and breaststroke silvers and bronze in the 200m freestyle.
In the girls’ eleven year old age group, Jodi Bunker topped the podium in the freestyle and backstroke events at 100m, while team mate Lauren Patterson took the 100m individual medley gold in a club record time of 1.16.81 and silver in the 100m backstroke. Fifteen year old Shannon Costello added to the clubs golden haul with a victory in the 200m freestyle, adding to silver medals in the 100m freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and individual medley events.
The thirteen year old boys also enjoyed further success with James Burns taking the 100m freestyle title and silver in the 100m backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and individual medley, while Jordan Henry took the 100m butterfly gold, 200m freestyle silver and bronze medals in the 100m freestyle, breaststroke and individual medley. Mark Robinson also chipped in with gold in the 100m breaststroke.
Further gold medals were won by; eleven year old James Brewerton in the 100m individual medley (as well as silver in the 100m freestyle and butterfly and bronze in the 100m breaststroke), Thomas Burns (11) in the 100m freestyle (as well as bronze in the 100m individual medley) and Ryan Brewster (12) in the 100m breaststroke.
Other medallists for the city were; Eve Larsen (10) one silver and two bronze, Jennifer Sharp (12) two silver and one bronze, William Robinson (12) one silver and one bronze, Jay Whitehead (11), Callum Dann (10)and Jack Tallentire (13)who all won two bronze medals, Christina Castledine (12), Kristian Donaldson (13), Mattie Walker-Smith (10)Joseph Robbins (9) who all won one bronze medal.