Fifteen BSSC swimmers take schools to Nationals

Early October, fifteen BSSC swimmers were selected to represent their schools at the East & South East Division Relay Championships.  The Secondary Schools Team Relay Championships is the longest running championship series organised by the English Schools Swimming Association (ESSA).  Over 2300 medley and freestyle relay teams from over 400 English schools participate in separate divisional galas across the country and compete for places in the National Finals. 

The selected BSSC swimmers represented three schools across multiple age groups:

• The Herts & Essex High School Juniors – Lois Fields, Molly Greatbatch
• The Herts & Essex High School Intermediates – Ella Greatbatch, Felice Chan, Freya Hadnutt, Zoe Opiyo
• The Herts & Essex High School Seniors – Bella Parkus, Freya Reilly, Emma Fields, Kirsty Neill, Miriam Moukdad
• Bishop’s Stortford College Seniors – Alice Longman, Lilian Opiyo, Meisha Trend-Evans
• Haileybury College Seniors – Laura Burgess

After a late start due to technical issues with the starting equipment, all teams performed well on the night against tough opposition, including Skye Carter who competed at the European Youth Olympic Festival this summer.  There were 26 schools with Junior teams (typically Years 7 & 8), 24 schools with Intermediate teams (Years 9 & 10) and 18 schools with Senior teams (Years 11/12/13) and many of the BSSC swimmers were in teams recording top 10 finishes:

• The Herts & Essex High School Juniors – 7^th Medley, 9^th Freestyle
• The Herts & Essex High School Intermediates – 7^th Medley, 8^th Freestyle
• The Herts & Essex High School Seniors – 4^th Medley & 5^th Freestyle
• Bishop’s Stortford College Seniors – 8^th Freestyle, 11^th Medley
• Haileybury College Seniors – 10^th Medley, 13^th Freestyle

The Herts & Essex High School came 6^th overall on the night and 2^nd in the race for the Hertfordshire Schools Juba Trophy which was won by Berkhamsted School. 

Results from the East & South East Division championships were combined with the rest of the English divisions and the top 30 fastest teams invited to compete at the 64th ESSA Secondary Schools’ Team Championships on Saturday 19^th November 2022 at the London Aquatic Centre – the home of swimming for the 2012 Olympics.

The following relay teams have qualified for the final (overall position):

• The Herts & Essex High School Junior Girls Medley team (22^nd out of 217 teams)
• The Herts & Essex High School Senior Girls Medley (14^th out of 159) & Girls Freestyle (21^st out of 158) teams
• Bishop’s Stortford College Senior Girls Freestyle team (29^th out of 158)
• Haileybury College Senior Girls Medley team (29^th out of 159)

The following teams are on the reserve list for the final:

• The Herts & Essex High School Intermediate Girls Medley team (34^th out of 212)
• Bishop’s Stortford College Senior Girls Medley team (33^rd out of 159)

Congratulations to all swimmers and good luck to the qualifying teams for the National finals!