GAINSBOROUGH Dolphins welcomed teams from Grantham, South Lincs, Lincoln Vulcans and Thorne Tigers to the West Lindsey Leisure Centre for the second round of the Lincolnshire Junior League last weekend. Plenty of excitement and close races were to be witnessed as Dolphins claimed a very impressive second place behind reigning county champions Lincoln Vulcans with 34 top three places from the 49 events. They had to fight all the way as only three points separated second, third and fourth places at the final result as the Gainsborough outfit secured their place in the top six gala for the third round in September. The first victory of the evening came in the third event as the girls 9 years quartet of Harriet Webster, Freya Janney, Sian Saunders and Chloe Huddart won their freestyle relay, a feat they repeated later when winning the individual medley (I/M) relay. Freya also swam superbly to win her individual 25m backstroke whilst the girls capped off a magnificent night in this age group as Chloe (25m freestyle) and Harriet (25m butterfly) finished second whilst Chloe was just touched into third in the 25m breaststroke in a thrilling finish. The boys 10 years were also on fine form as they secured individual wins via James Beresford (50m backstroke and 25m butterfly) and Ben Ambrose (50m breaststroke). Ben Crookes gave one of his best performances to place second in the 50m freestyle whilst this trio teamed up with Alex Berry to finish second in their I/M relay and third in the freestyle event. Further double relay success was achieved in the girls 11/U age group as the quartet of Hollie Watkins, Lydia Waring, Lucy Thornton and Aysha Simpson powered their way to glory in the freestyle and I/M events. Lydia also claimed second place in the 50m breaststroke and third in the 50m freestyle as did Hollie in the 50m backstroke. The final two victories on the night came from Shannon Conway in the girls 10 years 25m butterfly and Ewan McKay in the boys 11/U 50m butterfly. Shannon also finished second in the 50m backstroke with Ewan third in the 50m freestyle. The girls 10 years rounded off a fantastic night for them with Molly Creed claiming a two second personal best to finish second in the 50m freestyle with Grace Tooke third in the 50m breaststroke. Katie Bindon teamed up with Shannon, Molly and Grace to finish second in the freestyle relay but a disqualification stopped them repeating this result in the I/M relay. In the girls 12/U age group both Loveday Beresford (50m freestyle) and Charlotte Smith (50m breaststroke) swam superbly to secure second places whilst they both finished second in their respective 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke races. In the boys 12/U age group Dan Goble swam in his first event for the club and finished in third place with a magnificent effort in the 50m breaststroke. Also on debut was Toby Sutherland in the boys 9 years and he achieved second in the 25m backstroke with a fine swim. The quartet of Ben Gravill, Harry Overton, Elliot Vaselo and Max Marshall-Malone finished third in the boys 9 years freestyle relay whilst Elliot Vaselo claimed the same position in his 25m freestyle race. Will Walmsley finished third in the boys 11/U 50m backstroke as did the relay team of Will, Cammron Bower, Ewan and Lawrence Hepton in the I/M event. Other fine swims on the night came from Zara Thomas, Hannah King, Thomas Humphreys, George Tooke, Aidan Clover and Matthew Overton as their involvement all contributed to the excellent result. The Club would like to thank all the volunteers on the night for making the gala a success and to congratulate all the swimmers and supporters for their resounding efforts. Final result: 1st Lincoln Vulcans 190 points; 2nd Gainsborough Dolphins 156; 3rd Grantham 154; 4th South Lincs 153; 5th Thorne Tigers 40.
