Wa-ter finish! Points shared in Cov comeback
A late comeback from the Coventry women’s team saw the spoils shared in the Varsity swimming at Warwick’s Sports Centre.
Warwick’s men romped to victory by 84 points to 24, but the ladies let slip a lead in the climax of the competition to narrowly lose 55-53.
The results mean that one Varsity point goes to each team; an outcome that had seemed unlikely going into the last few races.
Warwick got off to a blistering start, comfortably winning both of the 4×50 medley relays to seize the initiative, before Ruth Scanlan and Matt Graham won their respective individual medley events for the hosts.
It wasn’t until the next race, the sixth of the day, that Warwick were finally beaten, as the men’s 100m freestyle went to Coventry. However, that proved to be the first of only two races won by Coventry’s men – Warwick prevailed in the other ten in a remarkably one-sided competition.
Warwick got off to
a blistering start, comfortably winning both of the 4×50 medley relays
The competitiveness was to be seen in the women’s contest, after the precedent was set in their 100m freestyle race. Warwick’s Lucy Spencer produced an excellent final length to overcome her Coventry counterpart by the narrowest of margins; her personal best time of 1:02.33 taking the race by 0.02 seconds.
More wins for Scanlan, Spencer and backstroker Liz Bishop sandwiched a solitary Coventry victory – in the 100m breaststroke – as Warwick’s women won eight of the first nine events.
However, the nature of the allocation of points meant that that wasn’t quite enough to see them over the line. So it proved, as Coventry rallied to take the next two events and ensure that the final event – the 4x50m freestyle relay – would be decisive.
The men, meanwhile, continued to make short work of their opponents, as Tom Lamb, Henry Knight, Andy Reay and Matt Graham all brought home maximum points from their respective events.
What’s more, six successive men’s races saw the home pair finish first and second to secure maximum points, as the competition amongst the men seemed to be between Warwick’s own competitors.
The comprehensiveness of the men’s triumph was exemplified in the 200m freestyle, when Warwick pair Bruno Banks and Aaron Tomasz were virtually inseparable, with their Coventry counterparts a full length behind as they finished. While the men’s competition was decided long before the end, the women’s came down to the concluding event. It was an enthralling race, in which Warwick held a narrow lead after the first 50m stint, but Scanlan was left with slightly too much to do in the final leg.
The Coventry team emerged victorious in that event and consequently the whole competition, albeit by an extremely tight scoreline.
As close as she came to clawing it back, the Coventry team emerged victorious in that event and consequently the whole competition, albeit by an extremely tight scoreline.
Women’s captain Scanlan said afterwards: “I just ran out of pool at the end, having almost made it back! It was really tight, and obviously we’re disappointed, but it was so close, and hopefully we can take them down next year.
“The boys did so well though, we’re really proud of them – if only we could merge our scores together, then overall we would have won!”
The swimmers may well be cursing their luck: despite the team winning 18 of the 24 races overall, it was only sufficient to see them and Coventry earn one Varsity point apiece.
This was largely due to a new points scoring system brought in this year, which rewards second and third-placed finishers as well as the winners of each individual event.
But Scanlan has no regrets, as she explains: “Last year only one lane scored, but this year it was two, because we wanted to involve more people in Varsity.
“I like it: I don’t think we would have had such a good turnout, because more people now think it’s worthwhile coming to have a swim; there’s more opportunity for them to get involved.”
After seeing the women pegged back late on, Warwick’s swimmers will be hoping the more inclusive team can produce the kind of performance in next year’s competition that the men produced this time around.
In the meantime, conceding one point doesn’t ultimately prevent Warwick from edging ever closer to retaining the Varsity trophy.
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