RUGBY Swimming Club has won promotion from the Second Division of the Leicester Winter League after securing a top three finish in their first ever season in the league.
There were doubled points up for grabs as Rugby hosted the top eight final at the Queens Diamond Jubilee Centre on Saturday knowing a top three finish would see them promoted.
Burton and Melton Mowbray both had 32 points heading into the final, while Rugby and Kettering were on 31, Long Eaton had 30 points, Hinckley were on 29 and both Coalville and Wellingborough 28.
Rugby had high hopes with their home support cheering on from the sidelines but they were without several top swimmers which tied in with the league’s ethos of allowing all club swimmers an opportunity to compete and gain experience.
Rugby’s younger swimmers found the going a little tough, but the girls Under-11 team of Grace Darcy, Phoebe Faupel, Yanna Villassis and Isobelle Hobbs competed well to claim a fourth and two fifth place positions.
It was very much the same story for the boys equivalent, with Nathaniel Kayada, Jake Smith, Kieran Jarvis, Charlie Aldridge all again picking up valuable points with a third and fourth place in their respective relays, while there were also third, fourth and fifth individual splaces.
The Under-13 team of Elizabeth Reader, Mairead Williams, Sadie Pick, Harriet Troup came fourth in the medley relay, and clocked up a bronze in the individuals.
The boys team consisted of Toby Rigg, Daniel Carey, Barney Dudkowsky and Tom Tyler and camr third in both relays while also gaining valuable points for a second place and two third places in the individual races.
Lucy House, Lauren Phillips, Cerys Allen, Regan Walker, and Jasmine Rigg made up the Under-15 girls team and began racking up the points by finishing runner-up in both relays.
They also claimed a first spot as well as three third place finishes in the individual events.
The boys team of Jack Carey, Ethan Fletcher, Ben Jones, and James Phillips equally impressed by winning both relays and also recored a first, second and first placing in the individual.
Rigg and House teamed up with Karen Bates and Megan Williams for the women’s senior team who won their relays comfortably while also claiming two first place finishes and two third places in the individual events.
The senior men’s team, which consisted of Devesh Chohan, William Dunderdale, Simon Rigg along with Carey, surprised a few by winning and coming runner-up in the relays events. In the individual races they managed to secure fourth and third places finishes too.
Rugby’s final score of 253 was enough to secure third place, while Burton win by a large margin with 307 and Melton Mowbray earned just two more points that Rugby to finish as runner-up.
