Crusaders are Runners Up in Home Counties.

What a great result for Crusaders to finish second in the final round of the Home Counties only 18 points behind Dunstable who finished first. With local pride at stake, it was a much deserved achievement.

 Leighton Buzzard finished 13 points behind Crusaders to finish in third, followed by Witney & District, Luton B and Houghton Regis.  

Head Coach Adrian Smith said “we were missing so many swimmers through illness and injury so several swimmers had a busy night stepping up an age group to cover events. Special congratulations should go to Daisy Saunders and Isobel Pickering who had their first taste of competition at this level and did themselves proud helping their team to achieve 2nd place in the Girls 4 x 50 Medley and 4 x 50 Freestyle relays. Team spirit was fantastic with all the swimmers cheering at the end of the lane for their team. All the swimmers are to be commended for their fantastic efforts with special mention for Alex Brown who due to injury, came along  just to make up the numbers in the relay and ended up with a great PB to contribute to his team finishing in first place. It was that sort of night!”

Crusaders finished first or second in twenty six events.

First places were as follows:  

Boys 13/u Breaststroke: Tom Henderson, Girls 11/u Freestyle: Anna Henderson,

Ladies Open 100m Backstroke: Beth Masters, Ladies Open 100m Breaststroke: Katherine Marriott, Girls 11/u 50m Butterfly: Anna Henderson, Girls 15/u 100m Breaststroke: Sorcha Smith, Boys 13/u 4 x 50, medley relay: Alex Brown, Tom Henderson, Stephen Moffat and Tim Dryburgh, Ladies Open 4 x 50m med relay: Beth Masters, Katherine Marriott, Amelia Vincent and Sammie Griffith.

With second individual places to: Katherine Marriott, Anna Henderson, Michael Witham (2) , Josh Hardy, Finnley Whitbread (2), Owen Drabwell, Arron Moore, Héloїse Lee,  Nic Brown, Stephen Moffat (2) , Matt Dent,   

… and in relays, second places were achieved by:

Daisy Saunders, Finnley Whitbread, Anna Henderson, Isobel Pickering / Owen Drabwell, Nic Brown, Michael Witham and Nick Kent / Sarah Marriott, Sorcha Smith, Lucy Dent, Héloїse Lee /

Twenty two swimmers achieved 35 personal bests::

Sarah Marriott 3, Tim Dryburgh 3, Anna Henderson 2, Alex Brown 2, Tom Henderson 2, Daisy Saunders 2, Finnley Whitbread 2, Owen Drabwell 2, Leonie Moore 2, Sorcha Smith 2, Tom Gilmour 2, Alex Nilsen, Alex Winter, Nic Brown, Michael Witham, Lucy Dent, Katherine Marriott, Matt Dent, Isobel Pickering, Héloїse Lee, Isobel Jones and Sammie Griffith.

If you are interested in finding out more information about Crusaders – a Swimming Club that caters for swimmers of all abilities, please contact Bev on 752318 or visit the website www.linsladecrusaders.org

Photo: the Home County team.