BUCS Short Course
It was a busy weekend for our Blues and Second Team swimmers at BUCS Short Course 2022, with a number of standout performances across a packed weekend. Over the weekend of 18-20th November, 33 swimmers from Oxford University Swimming Club travelled up to Sheffield once again for BUCS Short Course Championships.
The weekend started off on Friday evening with OUSC competing in a 4x50m Mixed Medley Relay, and Men’s and Women’s 4x50m Freestyle Relays. All the relays saw promising swims to start off the championships. We also had Jordan Oliver, Catarina Vanelli Coralli, Cayen Wang and Emma Madden in the 100 IM; a strong start to the weekend.
After a great night’s sleep in the Premier Inn, the team were up bright and early for a 7:20am warmup on Saturday morning. The Club Captain, Ellie Browne, started the day off in the North Pool with the 200 Freestyle. Her swim was very strong for this point in the season. The men in the South Pool also had fantastic swims, with David Pugh achieving a PB and Andrew Hong, Jonathan Rutter and Max Anderson Loake all securing Blues Times. Rutter also proceeded into the A Final, qualifying 9th. Sarah Tinley from the Dolphins Team achieved a 25 second Personal Best on her 200m Freestyle.
In the 50m Breastroke Jordan Oliver swam her way to a PB in a time of 37.89 and Finley Easton followed suit in a time of 32.63.
One Blues Time wasn’t enough for Andrew Hong, and he swam his way to a second Blues Time in the 100m Fly, and achieved a spot in the B Final – qualifying 19th.
Deryn Cressey-Rodgers and Max Anderson Loake both fancied getting their money’s worth for their entries by racing the 800 Free. Deryn’s swim was very promising for this point in the season, and Max Anderson Loake set a new Club Record in a time of 8:29.61 – also securing his second Blues Time of the day.
Saturday afternoon saw a huge proportion of the team racing in the 50m Freestyle, with some swimmers shattering their PBs and others coming back with lots of technique pointers to work on for the rest of the season. Some notable swims include Thejes Sundar who broke 26 seconds for the first time in a while, and Emily Mannock for who this was her first race back since her year abroad.
Next up was Jonathan Rutter, Max Underwood and Ellie Browne in the 200 Breastroke. Ellie got a PB, Jonathan made the A final, this time qualifying 3rd, and Max had fun.
In the final’s session, the team were eagerly cheering for Jonathan and Andrew in their respective finals. Jonathan had a very strong 200m Freestyle followed by a 200 Breastroke which was faster than in his heats swim. Andrew Hong’s 100m butterfly was also a very good swim for this point in the season. Unsurprisingly, all these fantastic swims were Blues Times
The team then spent the evening refuelling in Cosmos, and the extent of buffet depletion caused by OUSC was perhaps even more impressive than these finals swims, with notable mentions going to Fresher Sam Nicholls for his 4 heaped plates; Jackson Spry for his 7 plates; Andrew Hong for his 7 plates of mains, 2 bowls of soup and 2 plates of dessert; Jonathan Rutter for a very similar attempt but with a lot less lactose; and Zichen Liu for his notable effort despite not having swum any races.
Sunday morning had Andrew Hong and Sophie Lawrence in the 200m Fly. Andrew swam a Blues Time, and Sophie Lawrence only just completed the race.
In the 100m Freestyle, 4 swimmers achieved PBs, Captain Andrew Hong got yet another blues time and Fresher Molly Aspinall swam her way to her first ever Blues Time, breaking that 60s for the first time ever as well!
Jonathan Rutter was the fastest seed into the competition in the 200IM, and successfully saw himself into the final for yet another race. Max Underwood and Sam Nicholls had a good battle in their heat against a swimmer from Cambridge and both had some very promising swims.
The backstroke boys also battled in every event this weekend, with Jackson Spry just getting the touch on David Pugh in the final race, the 100 Back.
Max Anderson Loake and Deryn Cressey Rodgers swam yet more lengths, this time the 400 free. Max secured the blues time in this race also and Deryn won her heat.
the heats.
It was a very busy weekend and everyone from OUSC showed great teamwork and support. The competition has definitely reinstated everyone’s commitment to their teams and their enthusiasm towards training for the last 3 weeks of term. There were many excellent swims and so great to see 12 PBs broken from members of both the Blues and Second Team. A few swimmers narrowly missed out on PBs and Blues Times and there were many learning points taken away, ready to be implemented at the Rosenblatt Fortress in the final few weeks of training.
Congratulations to everyone who competed, special mentions go to :
- Deryn Cressey Rodgers for racing 1,700m over the course of 48 hours
- Jonathan Rutter for achieving a Blues Time and a Finals Lane in every race he swam
- Max Anderson Loake for breaking the 800m Record
- Molly Aspinall for breaking 60 on the 100 freestyle for the first time ever
- Our coach Zichen Liu for supporting the team all weekend.
Up next for the Blues Team is the fixture against Oxford Brookes in BUSL Phase 1 Round 3.
