With the annual Varsity match only two weeks away, the tension was high as the Cambridge University swimming team travelled to Surrey for the BUCS Southern regions qualification round. After promotion back into Division 1 last March the team was keen to make an impression and make it to the final round. This was going to be a challenge up against a number of strong teams including Oxford, who would also be preparing for the upcoming Varsity match.

The meet started well with the women’s Medley team swimming to victory with a new university record time of 2.02.40 beating both the Bath and Oxford teams. The men then followed with a very strong performance but were just touched out by the Oxford team into second place.

The next events were the individual 100m events; again these saw some strong Cambridge performances. Fresher Dale Waterhouse (Clare) managed to shave some time from a record in the 100m IM with a 1.00.01, followed closely by a convincing win by Henny Dillon (Catz) in the 100m Fly. Joel Carpenter (Fitzwilliam) also had a great swim in his 100m Butterfly finishing in 57.35. The 200m Freestyle saw a close race between Kat De Rome (St John’s) and Oxford’s Lucy Spencer. De Rome pulled through with a win by 0.01s giving a definite boost to the Cambridge team.

The next events were the 50m individuals where Oxford could make some ground, but the Cambridge team were not going to give it to them easily. Once again impressive swims were seen from Dillon and Carpenter in the 50m Butterfly; Dillon cruising to victory with a new record time of 29.50 and Carpenter losing out to Jack Marriot of Oxford by only 0.56s. The 50m Backstroke saw Oxford dominating with Justine Schluntz (Formerly of University of Arizona) and Captain Tom Booth (Commonwealth Youth games Bronze medallist) cruising to victory.

Cambridge were not finished yet, with a race between the women’s captains Caroline Gordon (Emmanuel) and Katherine Rollins in 50m Breastroke. The race was dominated by Gordon finishing nearly 2 seconds ahead with an easy victory. Tom Hill (Jesus) also performed well beating the Oxford swimmer by 0.8s. The men’s 50m Freestyle saw Waterhouse take on Oxford’s Tom Close, a 0.5 second victory pushed the Light Blues further into the lead.

The final events were the 4x50m Freestyle relay. The women’s team cruised to 2nd place behind Bath leaving Oxford behind by over a second. The men’s team (Carpenter, Tom Rootsey (Jesus), Andy Corley (Captain- Downing) and Waterhouse) then proceeded to smash a university record set in 1991 by 1.5s with a time of 1.36.79.

Final scores: 1st Bath (178 points), 2nd Cambridge (164 points), 3rd Oxford (160 points). A key victory only two weeks before Varsity on the 19th February – it’s going to be an exciting match so come along to Parkside Pool at 1:30pm to support the Cambridge University Swimming Team in bringing down the Dark Blues.