Sunderland’s swimmers again excelled, this time at the inaugural ASA National Winter Meet, which marked the end of the short course season. Winning five medals and breaking county and club records, nine swimmers qualified for individual events: Jonathan Carlisle, Adam Taylor, Rachel Taylor, Freya Rayner, Zak Logue, Lucy Ellis, Emma Cassell, Jodi Bunker and Kieran Peart.
Winning two silver medals, Jonathan Carlisle, 22, swam his way to the podium in the 100m and 200m backstroke events. Finishing joint third with Daniel Cross of Loughborough University in the heat with a time of 54.05, Jonathan improved his time in the final to finish second in 53.17 behind Joe Elwood of Loughborough University. He then lowered this time in the first leg of the 4 x 100m medley to 53.13 seconds to take the Northumberland and Durham (N&D) county record and the All Time club record. Jonathan swam successfully in the 200m backstroke event, finishing in 1:59.22 in the heat to qualify in 5th place for the final. Improving his heat time by 4 seconds in the final gave him the silver medal touching in1:55.79.
Swimming in the Open Age Group events, Rachel Taylor, 15, finished 23rd in the 200m breaststroke and as the second fastest junior swimmer won her a silver medal in the junior age group. Her time of 2:32.44 broke Rachel Wilson’s N&D Junior county record which has stood since 2003! In the 100m breaststroke, Rachel finished 27th overall and third in the junior age group to win bronze with a time of 1:11.15 and in the 50m breaststroke, Rachel finished in 33.50 to place her 44th. Her times in the three events broke the club’s Age Group and All Time Club records.
Adam Taylor, 19 swam brilliantly in the 50m butterfly to finish second in the heat. He swam alongside Ben Proud, Plymouth Leander, who broke the British Record with a phenomenal time of 22.39 seconds. In the final, Adam touched in 23.70 – which gave him a bronze medal a new N&D record and an All Time club record! Adam was also a finalist in the 100m backstroke and 50m backstroke where he took fourth and fifth places respectively, finishing in 23.70 and 53.31 and in the 100m butterfly where he finished seventh in 53.06 seconds.
Setting the second fastest ever time for a 17 year old female, Freya Rayner stormed to fourth place in the 50m freestyle final to finish fourth in 25.03 seconds. This broke the club’s age group and All Time records. Qualifying for the B finals of the 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke, Freya finished in fifth and sixth places respectively. Her 50m butterfly time was 27.51, new Age Group and All Time club records and her backstroke time was 28.63 seconds. Swimming the first leg of the 4 x 100m medley relay, Freya broke the club’s 100m backstroke record for both the Age Group and All Time categories with a time of 1:00.96.
Claiming two more club records was 17 year old Zak Logue. He qualified for the B final of the 400 I/M in 4:27.07 and finished third in the final with a time of 4:22.52 minutes. This broke the club’s Age Group and All Time records by three seconds, a record he had only set the week before at the Scottish Nationals! Zak finished 14th in the 1500m freestyle with a time of 15:39.72 just outside his PB.
Lucy Ellis, 18, swam in the 400m freestyle and 400m I/M events finishing 28th and 33rd respectively. Emma Cassell, 17, finished 36th in the 200m butterfly, 42nd in the 100m butterfly and 43rd in the 100m freestyle events. Jodi Bunker, 16, gained 40th place in the 200m butterfly event. Kieran Peart finished 48th in the 50m freestyle.
The club posted some excellent results in the relay events. In the women’s events, Sunderland A (Jodi Bunker, Freya Rayner, Emma Cassell and Lucy Ellis) claimed a great fifth place in the 4 x 200m freestyle event with a time of 8:17.01. The B Team (Elizabeth Clements, Anya Sordy, Rachel Taylor and Amy Henshaw) finished 11th in 8:46.32.
In the 4 x 100m medley, Sunderland A (Freya Rayner, Rachel Taylor, Emma Cassell and Lucy Ellis) finished sixth in the final in 4:10.78 while Sunderland B (Alexandra Clements, Jodi Bunker, Anya Sordy and Elizabeth Clements) finished 17th. In the 4 x 100m freestyle relay, Sunderland A (Jodi Bunker, Lucy Ellis, Emma Cassell and Freya Rayner finished eighth in the final in 3:49.95) and Sunderland B (Alexandra Clements, Rachel Taylor, Anya Sordy and Elizabeth Clements) finished in 18th in 4:03.22.
The men’s team performed just as well, finishing fifth in the final of the 4 x 100m medley relay the team (Jonathan Carlisle, Joshua Campbell, Adam Taylor and Kieran Peart) touched in 3:45.93. The 4 x 100m freestyle team (Kieran Peart, Mason Jaques, Adam Taylor and Jonathan Carlisle) finished seventh in the final. Finishing seventh in the 4 x 200m freestyle final in 7:34.20 the team comprised Kieran Peart, Mason Jaques, Zak Logue and Adam Taylor.