2017 Swim England National County Teams 2017 Divisions 1 & 2
- Sunday, October 8th
- Ponds Forge, Sheffield
- 25m
- Timed Finals
- Division 1 Results
- Division 2 Results
The annual County Team Championships took place in Sheffield yesterday, where 900 swimmers from over 36 English counties took to Ponds Forge, vying for their respective Division 1 and Division 2 titles. Each division typically has 20 teams competing, with individual events contested over age groupings of 12/13, 14/15 and 16/17. The 100m distance of each stroke is included in the meet program, with one swimmer competing from each county in each age group.
Additionally, squads race in the 4x50m medley relay and mixed 6x50m freestyle relay. Points are distributed as 20 for 1st place, 19 for 2nd, 18 for 3rd, etc., with 20th place earning 1 point. The final competition results determine where county teams compete in this same tournament the following year, with the bottom four teams from Division 1 moved to Division 2 for next year. Conversely, the top 4 from Division 2 get upgraded to Division 1’s competition.
Key Results – Division 1
The county of Yorkshire won its division for the 15th time, while Devon and Lancashire were this year’s respective 2nd and 3rd place finishers. Helping Yorkshire top the overall points was City of Leeds’ Tia Ward, who scored the girls’ 14/15 years 100m backstroke title in a time of 1:02.05.
Yorkshire also came up big in the boys 14/15 4x50m medley relay, with the squad touching in a time of 1:48.10 to win by over a second and a half ahead of 2nd place Lancashire.
Other notable Division 1 performance came in the form of Newcastle Swim Team’s Nick Pyle, who clocked a time of 54.23 in the boys 16/17 100m backstroke event. Representing the county of Northumberland & Durham, Pyle’s time checks in as the 2nd fastest SCM time ever by a British 16-year-old in the event.
Emma Russell of Midlothian made her mark in Sheffield as well, taking the 14/15 years 100m freestyle in a time of 57.14. That rockets Russell to 2nd in the line of historic British swims in the event for her age.
Pyle’s teammate, Emily Large, who was named to Team England’s roster for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, earned the 100m butterfly victory in a time of 59.84, the only 16/17 swimmer under the minute mark in the timed final.
Key Results – Division 2
Winning Division 2 for the first time in history, the county of Berkshire & South Bucks beat out rivals Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire to take the 2017 title. Emilia Sansome helped Berkshire & South Bucks along by claiming 2 race wins on the day. Sansome was a member of both girls’ 16/17 4x50m medley and mixed 6x50m freestyle relay, with each winning gold in respective times of 1:59.12 and 2:37.49. Cambridgeshire finished runner-up in both races.
Sansome had earlier collected an individual win in the form of her 100m freestyle victory in a time of 56.73, a new PB for the Wycombe District athlete. She also touched in 1:01.85 to take the girls 16/17 100m backstroke win for Berkshire & South Bucks.
Win for #Yorkshire in D2 and a win for #BerksandSouthBucks in D2! Great Swimming from all ???♀️ pic.twitter.com/cZQ7t60sIT
— Swim England (@Swim_England) October 8, 2017
