BUSL 2023
The British University Swimming League (BUSL) is a relatively new format, however, it has already established itself as a major highlight of the swimming calendar. Teams go head-to-head across several ‘dual matches’ throughout the season, followed by conference finals and concluding with a national final. At the conference final on the 2nd of February, OUSC beat teams from Oxford Brookes, Royal Holloway and Warwick to finish top of the conference. As a result, the team qualified for the national A Final held at Braunstone Leisure Centre in Leicester on the 18th of March. The event fell outside of Oxford’s term time, so we were only able to field a team of ten swimmers (compared to some other teams of eighteen). However, the group pulled out some whopping swims to finish in an outstanding third place!
Racing opened with the Women’s 4x50m Medley Relay, which consisted of Cayen Wang, Ellie Browne, Sophie Lawrence and Molly Aspinall. They were closely followed by the Men’s Relay team of David Pugh, Jonathan Rutter, Andrew Hong and newly-elected President Max Anderson Loake. The team was completed by Samual Nicholls and Jackson Spry, who also delivered some impressive swims.
Across the day, swimmers achieved numerous podium finishes:
First place:
- Jonathan Rutter – 100m Breaststroke (1.00.33), 50m Breaststroke (28.23), 50m Freestyle Skins (23.94 / 23.99 / 24.03)
- Max Anderson Loake – 100m Freestyle (52.39)
Second place:
- Andrew Hong – 100m Butterfly (54.89)
Third Place:
- Men’s 4 x 50 Medley Relay – David Pugh, Jonathan Rutter, Andrew Hong, Max Anderson Loake (1.45.47)
- Sophie Lawrence – 100m Fly (1.04.14)
- Andrew Hong – 50m Fly (25.44)
A special mention must go to Jonathan ‘smooth as butter’ Rutter, who broke his own BUSL record in the 100m breaststroke. He also broke the 200m freestyle record at the conference final, with a time of 1:48.27. Many thanks to timekeeper extraordinaire Sierra Sparks who volunteered at the event on behalf of the club.
The final scoreboard placed Oxford in third place on 312 points, behind Lancaster on 316 and Nottingham on 351. The event had a fantastic atmosphere, and the team are extremely keen to return bigger and even stronger next year!
