British University Swimming League Phase 1 2021
Michaelmas has seen an exciting change to the traditional OUSC Season Schedule this year. The Blues team competed in the British University Swimming League (BUSL), and had duel matches against Brunel, Oxford Brookes and the University of Surrey.
With over 50 Universities competing this year we are thrilled to be taking part in this sprint-based league. Phase 1 of the league is three duel matches against the other teams in your local conference, and the points are carried forward to the Championship gala which will be held in Hilary Term.
Our first match was in week one and was unfortunately held virtually against Brunel. This meant we had to compete in our pool at Iffley Road, and they raced in their pool. Despite it being the first week of the season, and most swimmers shad been out of the pool for a significant period of time before this due to COVID, this did not stop the Blues finishing 12 points ahead of Brunel and taking an early lead in their local conference.
Round two was the local derby against Oxford Brookes. Held at the end of October on home turf for the Blues team, the competition was heated up by both teams bringing along a second, non-scoring team to race as well. This was the very first time the new freshers could race for OUSC against another team face-to-face, and the first time the returning swimmers were against another team in real life since Varsity 2020.
There were some very exciting swims, with Jonathan Rutter breaking both the Oxford University and the British University Swimming League records on the 100 IM with a time of 56.69, and Andrew Wilson breaking the British University Swimming League Record for the 100 Breast in a time of 1:01.34, and both these swimmers being the first to achieve Blues Times for the 2021-22 Season.
Despite it being a very close gala, the Blues came out on top, 20 points ahead of Brookes, meaning they maintained their status at the top of the conference league.
Finally in 9th week the last competition of Phase 1 was an away duel against the University of Surrey. Despite our gala only being scored against Surrey, there were also King’s College London, University College London, Kent and Sussex competing in their duels at the same time which gave the Blues swimmers even more exposure to racing other teams in the preparation for the Varsity Match against Cambridge in February.
It was a very tough duel, Surrey put up an invincible team, but despite the loss there were some good takeaways from the Oxford team. Eva Ponting swam a season’s best in the 100 Fly, Spencer Williams and Ellie Browne and the Women’s 4×50 Freestyle Relay all dropped time from the match vs Brookes a few weeks earlier, notably the relay dropping 5 seconds!
The loss to Surrey has left Oxford in a strong second place in their local conference, a very strong position to be in looking forward to the Championship Match in February which determines whether they qualify for the National Final later in the season.
Well done to everyone who has swam in the British University Swimming League and look-out for updates on the Championship Match on our Instagram page!
