The Ulster Schools Swimming Grammar Schools Championships took place in Ballymena on Saturday with the Enniskillen Royal Grammar School taking part for the first time. The Junior Section is for swimmers in Years 8 to 10 – swimmers aged 11-14, swimming against each other for the top spots.
Kealan McShea competed in the 50m Backcrawl and the 100m IM. The Year 10 student finished the heats and prepared for the final in 1st seed with a time of 32.87. In between times he competed in the 100m Individual Medley – a heat declared winner event. Kealan swam to a 2 second personal best finishing with a Silver Medal in a time of 1:12.47. In the 50m Backcrawl Final Kealan led from start to finish, still pushing himself to a new PB of 32.38 seconds.
Lewis McCartney, also a Year 10, participated in 50m Breaststroke and 50m Freestyle at the Grammar Schools championships. In the heats Lewis swam PBs and finished as 4th seed and 2nd respectively. In the final of the Breaststroke Lewis finished 4th in a time of 36.73 (2sec PB) while in the Freestyle he was focused on getting a medal and finished with a 28.60 to earn a Silver Medal with a 1 second personal best.
Another Year 10, Josh Man, swam in the championship for the first time in Breaststroke and Freestyle and posted new Personal Bests in both to finish 8th and 11th overall respectively.
Jason Man is a Year 9 pupil and was also swimming here for the first time and competed in the 50m Backcrawl and 50m Breaststroke posting a great new PB in the latter.
Ellie McCartney was one of the youngest competitors in the Junior section as an 11 year old Year 8. Nevertheless, Ellie was determined to make an impression. In the 50m Breaststroke heat the ERGS pupil finished as second seed in the 11-14 Junior Section and then competed in the 100m IM. Ellie finished 5th in the Heat Declared Winner IM with a new PB and then started to prepare for the Breaststroke Final. Ellie fell behind from the start to the older swimmers but was able to catch up over the 50m and secure the top position by 3/100th of a second. The ERGS swimmer was the youngest medalist of the competition.
The Enniskillen Royal Grammar School freestyle relay team, consisting Jason & Josh Man, Kealan McShea and Lewis McCartney, put in a stellar performance finishing 3rd in the Junior Section.
The total points from the boys’ events are totalled to find the top boys school. All the swimmers from the Fermanagh school contributed and ERGS finished third overall just behind Methody and RBAI – An exceptional achievement for the 1st term of the new school.
