After reintroducing the seconds varsity match last year, this year saw the seconds team congregate at Parkside pool to face the Cambridge team again. In an incredibly well-fought match, Oxford won the Men’s trophy, but unfortunately lost out on the Women’s and Overall trophy. Points […]
This year, Varsity was held at the Parkside pool Cambridge on the 3rd March. In an incredibly exciting match, Oxford and Cambridge were neck and neck throughout, separable by only 2 points at the end of the individual races. Oxford then dominated the relays, winning […]
The seconds squad arrived in Cambridge in good spirits and ready to compete in the second ever seconds Varsity match. After the parade we were quickly into the first events.
Cambridge started off strongly in the women’s 100m IM, with strong swims from Ada Taggart and Lucy Greenwood only being enough for second and fourth place respectively. Oxford also placed second and fourth in the men’s IM, but James Mason and Toby McCarroll both produced good times. After third and fourth for Emily Urquhart and Megan Knock in the Women’s 50 backstroke Oxford’s first win of the meet came thanks to Jarvis Chapman in the men’s event. An extremely strong underwater phase lifted him to victory in 28.79s, a time that would have put him ahead of both Cambridge swimmers at halfway in the 100m backstroke in the blues Varsity later that day. Michael Shao was just pipped into fourth.
Cambridge’s strength continued in the 100 free, and Sarah Chapman and Philip Decker placed second, while Isabel Gonzalvez and Hugo Caven placed fourth. The men’s free especially was a very tight race, with all four swimmers finishing within a second of each other.
Oxford rallied though, and won both butterfly events. Lucy Greenwood and Arman Karshenas both blew away the Cambridge competition. This form continued after the break with Sarah Chapman showing her stamina to lead out from the front and take victory in the 200 free. Isabel Gonzalvez also produced a very strong finish to pull away from the Cambridge swimmers and place second. Although Cambridge were again strong in the men’s 200, Oxford’s good form continued afterwards, with further victories from Emily Urquhart and Toby McCarrol in the 50 breaststroke, and Tilly Ansell and Tom Hickling both coming third. Oxford then responded to a Cambridge 1-2 in the 50 freestyle with one of their own. Previous race-winners Arman Karshenas and Jarvis Chapman each beat both Cambridge swimmers in rapid times.
All this left Oxford needing to win three relays in order to win the overall competition. Cambridge’s strength in the women’s competition continued into the women’s medley relay and our team of Emily Urquhart, Tilly Ansell, Sarah Chapman and Anna White were unfortunately unable to beat them. The men’s team of Jarvis Chapman, Toby McCarrol, Arman Karshenas and James Mason however put together a blisteringly quick relay to beat the Cambridge team by nearly five seconds.
The Cambridge women were again too strong in spite of good performances by the women’s free relay team of Genevieve Nelson, Lucy Greenwood, Anna White and Rellie Goddard, and were able to seal the victory for seconds Varsity in this race. The men’s competition was still at stake, however. In an incredibly tight last race, after Philip Decker, Michael Shao and Tom Hickling had provided Oxford with a slender lead, a brilliant final leg split of 25.95s from captain Hugo Caven was enough to secure victory by just a tenth of a second.
The final scores were
Women’s: Oxford 38-52 Cambridge
Men’s: Oxford 49-41 Cambridge
Overall: Oxford 87-93 Cambridge
Huge thanks to Declan Pang and Lauren Burton for coaching the seconds team throughout the year, and to Hugo Caven for captaining and organising the team. Thanks also to Cambridge for hosting the event and being such good competition!
Written by Adam Bagley
Oxford swam away with the trophy at Varsity 2019 after one of the closest-fought matches in recent years. Both Oxford and Cambridge were eagerly anticipating the match, both fighting for a win after the first draw in history last year. The team travelled down to […]
This year varsity will take place on Sunday 3rd March at Parkside pool, Cambridge. (Please note the change in date from the Saturday 2nd March) Bookmark on DeliciousDigg this postRecommend on Facebookshare via RedditShare with StumblersTweet about itBookmark in Browser
Members of OUSC travelled to Vila Real de Santo António in Portugal this year for our annual training camp. The new destination was accompanied by new faces to the team, all eager to compete in their first Varsity match later this term. Training camp is always one of the toughest weeks of Varsity preparation, with over 25 hours of training being completed over the course of six days, but remains one of the highlights of the year thanks to the friendships formed and strengthened. The week has provided us with the best possible start for Hilary term, and the team is now more motivated than ever for this year’s Varsity match on 3rd March. Follow us on social media to keep up to date with our Varsity preparations, and watch the video below to find out what we got up to on camp!
This year, Cambridge rehoming to host alumni relays on the day of Swimming Varsity on 3rd march 2019. These would take the form of 4x50m mixed freestyle relays and would be just before the main Varsity event. There will be an aged-based handicap, so older […]
With the arrival of This Girl Can week it’s the perfect opportunity to shine the limelight on OUSC’s hugely successful female cohort, who have beaten Cambridge women for the past 7 Varsity matches. This week aims to eradicate any stereotypes, pressures and limits that may […]
OUSC have had an incredible weekend at the BUCS SC Championships at Ponds Forge, seeing an astonishing 7 records broken and 14 Blues times set in just 3 days of racing. A strong team spirit was apparent with an enormous amount of support radiating from poolside throughout every race.
It all kicked off on Friday evening with the 4x50m freestyle relay heats and long-distance races. Fresher Ellie Corby set the first record of the weekend in the 800m freestyle with a time of 9:22.24, after which both the men’s and women’s relay teams secured themselves a space in their respective B finals.
Saturday began with the 200m freestyle, which saw an impressive swim from Fresher Anna Duncan to achieve her first ever Blues time in a PB of 2:11.00!
The next record to be set was in the 50m breast which was smashed by Fresher Zoe Faure Beaulieu to gain a spot in the B final later that day, where she finished 6th. Zoe swam an awesome time of 33.24 in the heats and matched it in the finals with 33.26. Matt Williams also produced a Blues time in the 50m breast touching in 29.53.
A pair of Blues time came in the 100m fly with Fresher Spencer Williams and OUSC veteran Matt Courtis swimming strongly, finishing in 1:04.44 and 56.99 respectively.
Ellie Corby added a second record to her name in the 200m back later that day, touching in a time of 2:23.90.
The 50m free brought another Blues time, this time from Louisa Zolkiewski, who propelled herself to a swim of 27.65 with some phenomenal underwater fly kick.
A fantastic Blues time came from Tobermory Mackay-Champion in the 200m breast with a time of 2:15.04 in the heats. This saw him through to the final that evening where he placed 5th and improved his time to 2:12.84 against a very strong field.
Spencer Williams took down the 400m IM record by over 4 seconds with a gutsy swim and a Blues time, finishing in 5:08.00.
The women’s 4x50m free relay team of Louisa Zolkiewski, Ellie Corby, Lauren Burton and Spencer Williams placed 1st in their B final with an impressive last leg from Spencer to touch out the team from Bath by just 0.02. The men’s 4x50m free relay team placed 8th in their B final.
Sunday began and ended with more records. The former came from Spencer Williams in the 200m fly with another Blues time of 2:21.26.
Blues times started rolling in with Lauren Burton, Anna Duncan and Matt Courtis all earning theirs in the 100m free with promising times of 1:00.84, 1:00.43 and 52.79 respectively.
Zoe Faure Beaulieu earned her 2nd record of the meet in the 100m breast with a Blues time of 1:12.53. These two excellent performances led her to be chosen by the captains as swimmer of the meet.
Ellie Corby swam a final Blues time in the 400m free in a time of 4:35.54.
The final session saw Tobermory Mackay-Champion finish 8th in the 100 breast final in a rapid time of 1:02.50. To round off the meet a women’s team of Louisa Zolkiewski, Zoe Faure Beaulieu, Spencer Williams and Luiza Farache Trajano raced a stunning 4x50m medley relay to successfully set another record, touching in a time of 2:00.02.
The weekend saw some thrilling swims with some great feedback and guidance coming from both coaches and teammates. The performances have greatly inspired and motivated the team ahead of the next block of training – exciting times lay ahead!
Written by Ellie Corby
Last weekend saw OUSC compete for the first time this year at our annual friendly gala. Racing in both individual and relay events against visiting teams from Southampton, Warwick and Oxford Brookes, there were some fantastic swims, setting a high benchmark for the season ahead. […]
