City of Oxford’s relay teams inspired them to third place in the first round of the Milton Keynes & District Junior League Division 1 meeting at Hendon.

To complete a good weekend, the B team finished fifth in their Division 2 clash in Wellingborough.

The 11 & under girls’ team of Lara Mills, Evie McLean, Zoe Smith and Gretal Goodgame got Oxford, off to a flier at Hendon by winning the freestyle relay.

That was echoed at the end of the night by a victory in the same event by Delphine Little, Megan Smit, Mimi Morley Iszatt and Safiya Silah’s triumph in the 12 & under girls freestyle relay.

The boys’ nine-and-under team of Lachlan Middleton, David Feng, Noah Ashton, James Thorp and Thomas Gamaio Johnson, and the 12-and-under quartet of Ralph (Freddie) Cooke, Billy Wotton, Nicholas Skelton and Logan Bryan, struck silver in both the medley and freestyle relays.

In the individual events, Delphine Little won both the 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke in the 12 & under category, while Evie McLean landed the 11 & under 50m breaststroke by a distance. Billy Wotton was fastest in the 12 & under boys equivalent.

At Wellingborough, Olivia Watkiss, Amy Orbell-Durrant, Jasmine Johnson and Trinity Talkington pipped Chesham into second place in the12 & under medley relay. Their 10 & under team of Abigail Hopkins, Rosie Hilton-Dew, Freya Little and Megan Peake won their medley relay, while Ayanna Fulga, Susie Heron, Stephanie Jervis and Lili (Panqian) Ashton did the same in the 11 & under freestyle relay.

Fulga took the 11 & under girls’ 50m butterfly title by four seconds, while Hilton-Dew won the 10 & under 50m breaststroke.

Nine-year-old Rebekka Smit took the 25m backstroke crown.

RESULTS

Hendon gala: 1 Ealing 201 pts, 2 Guildford 267, 3 City of Oxford A 189.

Wellingborough gala: Wellingborough 178pts, 2 Chesham 159, 3 Linslade Crusaders 171, 4 Milton Keynes 172, 5 City of Oxford B 153.

Meanwhile, City of Oxford have 13 swimmers who have qualified for the British Championships and 19 who have qualified for the Home Nations’ Championships (17 for England, 2 for Wales).

Chris Currie, of Oxford City, collected five medals at the South East Regional Championships in Crawley.

He won gold in the men’s multi-classification 200m freestyle in 2.18.17, silver in the 50m free and bronzes in the 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley.

Amy Coombs took bronze in the 50m freestyle in 28.00.

Lottie Wynne-Jones landed a double victory as Bicester Blue Fins finished sixth in the opening meeting of the Milton Keynes Junior League in Uxbridge.

She won the age 12 50m butterfly by more than a second and a half in 29.71 secs and the 50m backstroke by more than three seconds in a club age group record time of 31.28.

Wynne-Jones then combined with Tia Falkner, Alexandra Pluckrose and Maddy Powell to finish runners-up in the age 12 girls’ 4x25m freestyle and medley.

Gala result: 1 Hillingdon 247pts, 2 Barnes 205, 3 Leander 159, 4 Wantage 159, 5 Brompton 132, 6 Bicester Blue Fins 113.