Dolphins Varsity Match Report 2024
Six months of training as a squad had come down to this one day, and with a strong team comprised of both speedy freshers and varsity veterans, the mighty dolphins were more ready than ever to reclaim the trophy.
Despite the early start for varsity, the team was in high spirits, and we perfectly executed our walk-out song (big thanks to DJ Chris Dukes Carnegie). The atmosphere on poolside was electric.
Freya McCauley-Wright, Orrin Blair, and Sophie Chambers were up first in the 100IM and delivered the first of many 1-2 finishes for Freya and Orrin. Orrin also set a new 2s varsity, and all-time record of 1:10.65. With a tough act to follow in the open event Joseph Read, Wojtek Treyde, and Nicholas Lim, Nic bettered his own varsity record from last year, touching in a time of 1:02.81 with Wojtek just being out-touched to finish in 3rd. Joe also had an excellent race, especially considering they have spent most of the season coaching as opposed to swimming.
Up next was the women’s 50 back seeing Kate “The Social Sec” McKeough and Penelope Aggett step up and Orrin’s second swim in two events. Showing no signs of fatigue from her 100IM Orrin once again delivered a winning swim, followed closely by Kate in second and Penelope in fifth. The men’s 50 backstroke was a similar story with Men’s Captain Tobias Lloyd and Rory Bristoll stepping up. Tobias touched in a time of 29.06, 4 seconds ahead of The Tabs, and Rory dropped 2 seconds from trials to touch in in second in a time of 30.53.
The 100 freestyle is perhaps the most exciting race of the second’s varsity programme, showing both speed and endurance and exhibiting athleticism to the highest degree. On the women’s side, Beatrice Munroe, Mail Jongman-Rios and our Ex-Women’s Captain Liberty Hunter delivered a 1-2-4 finish respectively with Bea setting a new 2s record in a time of 1:03.76, and Mali just 0.3s behind. On the open side, everyone’s favourite American Ben Wardlow and Social Sec Chris “The DJ” Carnegie threw down gusty performances to once again take the 1-2 finish with Chris winning in a time of 54.80, just 0.33 seconds off the 2s record.
In the 50 fly, Freya was back up alongside Isabel Valovin and Deryn Cressey-Rodgers. Freya touched first in a time of 30.83 setting a new varsity record, followed by Isabel in 2nd, having taken a whopping 1.5s off her time since trials 2 weeks prior, and Deryn in 4th. Declan Pang, Wojtek Treyde, and Thejes Sundar delivered a 1-2-3 finish in the open event with Wojtek setting a new 2s record of 27.51 and Dec setting a new Varsity record of 26.38.
Following a short break, we were ahead of The Tabs by quite some margin however we couldn’t grow complacent. In the women’s 200 freestyle Non Watts, Chloe Davis, and Bea finished 6th, 1st, and 3rd respectively and in the Open Chris and Finn Ashworth delivered a beautiful 1-2 with Chris bettering his own varsity record in a time of 2:03.40.
In the women’s 50m breast stoke Nicole Farmer dropped an insane time of 36.58 securing first and a new 2s record, following closely behind was Captain Orla Supple to take 2nd and Deryn who took 4th. Nic, Rory, and Adam Tilling followed up the impressive performance from the women with another 1-2 finish for Nic and Rory, setting the varsity and 2s record in 31.12 and 32.38 respectively, Adam put in a great performance to finish 5th.
For the final individual event, it was the splash and dash, the crowd’s favourite, the 50-meter freestyle! Chloe and Mali both dropped sub-30 swims to take 1st and 2nd with Chloe setting a new varsity record of 28.30. Mara Wuelfing had a great swim to finish 5th in a seasons-best time of 30.36. Dec, Ben, and Thejes delivered on the 1-2-3 finish with Dec setting the pool on fire with a new varsity record of 24.34.
At the end of the individual events the score was 94-46 Oxford meaning we were guaranteed the win, but we didn’t let that stop us from winning all four relays. The Women’s “A” 4×50 medley relay won by over 5 seconds; the “B” relay team were just out-touched for 3rd by a margin of 0.25 seconds. The open medley relay won again by a comfortable 8-second margin in a time of 1:55.01. In the women’s freestyle relay, the “A” team delivered once again with a crushing 5-second win, setting a new varsity record of 1:56.43. The “B” team beat Cambridge “B” for 3rd. The open relay team had an all-star line-up, and they delivered a monstrous 1:39.58 setting a new varsity record and rounding off the varsity match.
The overall score was 122 Oxford 55 Cambridge, a decisive victory and a testament to all the hard work that has been put in this year in the pool. Both the women’s and open teams were victorious with scores of 60 – 30 and 62 – 25 respectively. All in all 11 varsity records and 7 second team records were broken. You can check out the full results and times here.
We would like to thank Joseph Reed and Zichen Lui for coaching the team over the past year the standard of the team has improved massively because of the additional coaching. The whole committee and particularly President Max Anderson Loake for their continued support of the 2s. In addition to all the volunteers, timekeepers, and officials who made Varsity possible as well as all the friends and family that came to support us. Finally, we would like to thank Cambridge for being great competition.
Yours in the darkest of blues,
Orla Supple and Tobias Lloyd (Seconds Captains 2023-24)
