HALESOWEN swimmers travelled to Stechford Cascades pool for the first round of the National League last Saturday.

As expected, the quality of the competition in the Premier division was high, and after 10 races Halesowen were in joint first place with Braunstone, and Hereford were only one point behind.

By the half way point, Braunstone had surged into a commanding lead and it was obvious that it was going to be a fight between Halesowen and Hereford for second place, and that every point would count. Despite some great swims by Halesowen they finished third with Hereford beating them by just four points.

Double individual event winner was Josh Bradley in the 4x2 Individual Medley and 100m backstroke.

Other individual event winners were James Cuthbert in the 100m butterfly, Kate Morrice and Jack Simpson in the 100m freestyle, and Olivia Jay and Amber Robbins in the 100m breastroke.

The girls 15 years and under relay team won both the freestyle and medley relays. The team consisted of Kate Morrice, Georgia Lees, Amber Robbins and Emma Bird.

The boys 15 years and under relay team also won both of their races and included Jack Simpson, James Cuthbert, Ryan Larkin and Robert Jennings. The men’s open age won their medley relay with Mark Laing, Ryan Larkin, Josh Bradley and Nigel Gaskin. They were also successful in the 6x2 freestyle relay.