BUCS Short Course 2023
The annual BUCS Short Course event was back with a bang as 27 swimmers made the long journey up north to Ponds Forge, Sheffield for a busy weekend of fast racing. Beginning Friday 17th November, the event consisted of three days of rapid swimming, with many Blues times and PBs achieved, finals attended, and even a few club records broken too!
After leaving bright and early on the Friday morning, the first event to get underway was the fastest heats of 100IM, with Jonathan Rutter perfectly setting the tone for the weekend by achieving the first Blues time of the weekend and breaking his first OUSC record of this season with a blistering time of 56.59, only just missing out on the A final. It was looking set to be a fast weekend!
Next up was the 4×50 mixed medley relay, swam by Charlotte O’Leary, Jonathan Rutter, fresher Louis McAuliffe and Molly Aspinall. Continuing Rutter’s success, they swam an enormous time just 0.2 seconds off the OUSC record, and secured their place in the B final.
The next session had the remaining heats from all the day’s events, beginning with 200 Freestyle. Andrew Mackenzie swam a solid time just outside his PB, along with Ellie Browne and Cayen Wang. Women’s captain Eva Ponting swam a magnificent swim, leading her heat from the beginning and finishing with a massive 5 second PB in 2:15.18, who was then followed by Molly Aspinall achieving her first Blues time of the season in 2:10.59, and dominating her heat too with a huge 7 second PB.
The remaining 100IM heats followed, with fresher Ben Wardlow, Cayen Wang and Charlotte O’Leary all swimming really well, with Charlotte smashing her PB and clinching the blues time in 1:06.63.
With the evening came the finals, with Jonathan breaking his own record and winning the B final in 55.60. The 4 mixed medley relay swimmers were pumped and ready to beat that record they were so close to in the heats, and that they did in a time of 1:48.63, with every single one of them swimming faster than they had earlier in the day, and finishing 13th overall, finishing off the first day with a bang.
Lots of team bonding ensued as the men’s and women’s teams went back to their respective Airbnbs for some questionably cooked but very fulfilling pasta before snuggling into bed together.
After a solid night’s sleep, everyone came back well rested for more speedy swims on Saturday. The early morning fastest heats session started with Louis McAuliffe’s first individual event, 50 Freestyle, and emanating his success in the relay yesterday, he managed to achieve a PB and his first ever Blues Time in 23.27. This was followed by fresher Jake Hudson’s first race of the weekend, 200 Breaststroke, which he swam well at this point in the season. Jonathan also swam well with yet another Blues Time and finals spot.
Next was Charlotte’s 50 Backstroke, leading to another Blues Time after a sub 30 swim in 29.86. Fresher Kamran Din, Tobermory Mackay-Champion and Jackson Spry all had swims in this session too, swimming the 100 Fly, 50 Breaststroke and 200 Backstroke respectively. All three had solid swims close to their PBs, boding well for the rest of the season. Charlotte also swam a speedy 200 back then almost immediately opened the women’s 4×50 freestyle relay along with Chloe Davis, fresher Abbie Holland and Molly Aspinall anchoring. All four ladies had very quick splits but narrowly missed out on a finals spot, unlike the men’s team Jonathan Rutter, fresher James Smith, Kamran Din and Louis McAuliffe who claimed their place in the B final after their splash and dash.
The remaining heats led to loads more rapid swims, starting with some lightning quick 50 frees from Finn Ashworth, Adam Tilling, Ben Wardlow, Deryn Cressey-Rodgers, Freya McCauley-Wright, Ellie Browne and Molly Aspinall, with Molly achieving her second blues time of the weekend in 27.25 and Freya breaking 29 for the first time to get a PB in 28.97. Afterwards, Ellie very quickly went to swim a 200 breast with Jake Hudson while men’s captain Jackson fancied a 50 back.
Lots of 100 flys followed from Chris Carnegie, Ioan Cressey-Rodgers, James Smith, Freya McCauley-Wright, Deryn Cressey-Rodgers, Eva Ponting and Abbie Holland. An exciting race between Ioan and James led to James just out-touching Ioan in 57.67, and Chris and Eva smashed their PBs, with Eva swimming the fastest she’s swam in 5 years in a time of 1:06.22.
Some solid 50 breast swims followed from Finn Ashworth, Andrew Mackenzie, Adam Tiling and Jake Hudson, all very close to their PBs, then some speedy 200 backs from David Pugh and Caterina Vanelli-Coralli before the finals.
The evening’s finals led to more fast swimming, with Jonathan Rutter improving nicely on his time from the 200 breast heats and placing 9th overall with a 2:12.99, and the men all swimming faster in their freelay to place 18th with 1:35.59.
After such a long two days of swimming, the team dinner at Ask Italian was greatly anticipated. Despite a late start due to a certain men’s captain’s amazing punctuality and driving skills, a surprise was in store when ex-TJ turned ex-captain Andrew Hong made his OUSC debut for the 2023 season after flying all the way from over the pond to swim, just in time to indulge in the delightful ‘traditional’ (Caterina would disagree) Italian food.
Another restful night’s sleep, everyone was ready to finish the weekend strong. The morning’s fastest heats included Louis McAuliffe’s second Blues Time of the weekend with 52.07 in the 100 free, along with Andrew Hong’s first in 52.59. Fresher Annie Oakes swam a strong 200IM then a blistering 200 fly led to 3 out of 3 Blues Times from Andrew, Ioan Cressey-Rodgers and Abbie Holland. Both men qualified for the B final, and while there was no B final for the women’s event, Abbie’s time put her in 15th place. David Pugh, captain Jackson and Charlotte O’Leary fancied a 100 back and Jonathan Rutter opted for a 100 breast, then David and Ioan Cressey-Rodgers fancied getting their money’s worth with the 400 free. Ioan smashed his swim, just off his PB and getting his first ever Blues Time in 4:08.75. Finishing off, both medley teams swam really well, with Jonathan Rutter, Jackson Spry, Andrew Hong and Louis McAuliffe cruising comfortably into the B final and Charlotte O’Leary, Ellie Browne, Eva Ponting and Molly Aspinall just missing out on the women’s B final by one place.
The afternoon’s swims had similar success, with some speedy 100 frees from lots of the team, and Molly Aspinall bagging another Blues Time, being the only person on the women’s team to break a minute. Cayen Wang swam a solid 200IM and Caterina Vanelli-Coralli had a speedy 100 back. Andrew Mackenzie, Adam Tilling and Jake Hudson all had quick swims close to their PBs in the 100 breast, along with Andrew Hong, James Smith, Kamran Din and Caterina Vanelli-Coralli in the 50 fly, while Freya McCauley-Wright and Molly Aspinall both PBed. Next was Abbie Holland’s 400 free in which she demolished her PB for her second Blues Time of the weekend in 4:32.56.
We had three swimmers progress to the Sunday finals for individual events. Jonathan finished a fantastic weekend of racing with eighth place in the 100m Breaststroke, and in the 200m butterfly Ioan and Andrew finished in 14th and 20th place respectively. Finally, Tobermory joined Jonathan, Andrew and Louis in the medley relay for a fantastic 13th place finish.
Big thanks go to Max Anderson Loake, Deryn Cressey-Rodgers and Cayen Wang for their organisation, and of course to coach Zichen Liu for all his support!
