Over the past month, 4 students from our College have been representing Okehampton Otters Swimming Club at the Devon County Championships.
Finley Molyneux (Y9), Ben Webster (Y9), Solomon Marrison (Y8) and Abigail Graves (Y7) all qualified for the Devon County Championships which took place over 3 weekends in January and February. Between them they qualified for 17 events and out of these 17 events they got 12 personal best times and made 8 finals (placing in the top 8 in these events).
Notably, Squad Captain Finley Molyneux marginally missed out on the bronze medal in both the 50m and 100m butterfly coming an excellent 4th position.
Not only did our students achieve personal bests and make finals, but 3 of the swimmers qualified for the South West Regional Championships. Finley qualified in the 50m and 100m breastroke, as well as the 50m and 100m fly. Solomon qualified in the 50m and 100m breastroke; Abi also qualified in the 50m breastroke.
Their coach (Performance Squad Coach) and ex Okehampton College student Jessica James said ‘I am so proud of all of them; they have been training so hard since I started coaching them in July and this is what they have been working towards. For them to qualify for the Devon’s in itself was a huge achievement, but to go on and make finals and get regional times is incredible. This is the largest number of swimmers Okehampton Otters have ever seen qualify for regionals in one year. Some people don’t realise how hard these guys train – spending 5 hours a week in the pool – and it was just amazing to see it all pay off.’
If anyone is interested in joining Okehampton Otters Swimming Club please contact the Otters at otterscomms@hotmail.com. Whether you are fresh out of swim school, want to swim for fitness, or like these 4 swimmers want to compete, there are different squads to cater for all abilities.
If you are interested in competing then please do give it a go – you are never too old to start something new! There are always plenty of friendly competitions throughout the year and we know the Otters would welcome some new friendly faces.
Finley Molyneux (Y9), Ben Webster (Y9), Solomon Marrison (Y8) and Abigail Graves (Y7) all qualified for the Devon County Championships which took place over 3 weekends in January and February. Between them they qualified for 17 events and out of these 17 events they got 12 personal best times and made 8 finals (placing in the top 8 in these events).
Notably, Squad Captain Finley Molyneux marginally missed out on the bronze medal in both the 50m and 100m butterfly coming an excellent 4th position.
Not only did our students achieve personal bests and make finals, but 3 of the swimmers qualified for the South West Regional Championships. Finley qualified in the 50m and 100m breastroke, as well as the 50m and 100m fly. Solomon qualified in the 50m and 100m breastroke; Abi also qualified in the 50m breastroke.
Their coach (Performance Squad Coach) and ex Okehampton College student Jessica James said ‘I am so proud of all of them; they have been training so hard since I started coaching them in July and this is what they have been working towards. For them to qualify for the Devon’s in itself was a huge achievement, but to go on and make finals and get regional times is incredible. This is the largest number of swimmers Okehampton Otters have ever seen qualify for regionals in one year. Some people don’t realise how hard these guys train – spending 5 hours a week in the pool – and it was just amazing to see it all pay off.’
If anyone is interested in joining Okehampton Otters Swimming Club please contact the Otters at otterscomms@hotmail.com. Whether you are fresh out of swim school, want to swim for fitness, or like these 4 swimmers want to compete, there are different squads to cater for all abilities.
If you are interested in competing then please do give it a go – you are never too old to start something new! There are always plenty of friendly competitions throughout the year and we know the Otters would welcome some new friendly faces.
