Taunton School Prep and Senior swimmers had a weekend of success in the pool, competing at the National IAPS Finals and dominating in the annual local Meade King Cup.
Known to be the oldest swimming competition in the world between more than two schools, The Meade King Cup saw swimming teams from King’s College, Wellington School and Queen’s College come together at Taunton School to battle it out. The Taunton School team retained their titles winning The Boys’ Meade King Cup, The Girls’ Meade King Cup, The Open Girls’ Relay Cup, The Walsh Cup (for combined Senior Medley Relay times) and the Cannon Relay. Taunton School swimmers dominated from the start winning the first three races and going on to win 18 out of 27 races.
Winners included Hetty James (twice), Thomas Houghton-King, Skyla Coates, George Tester, Emily Yap, William Perry, Leila Fisher, Freya Tyler, Alex Male, Mandy Cheng, Henry Rong, Girls U15 Freestyle Relay Team (Makena Nesbitt, Skyla Coates, Imogen Childs, Emily Lawton), The Boys U15 Medley Relay Team (Oliver Halliday, Sebastian Dando, Harrison Barrett, Matthew Ashby), Boys U16 Medley Relay Team (George Perry, George tester, Jonny Cole, Alex Male), Senior Girls Medley Relay Team (Eleri Brown, Mandy Cheng, Millie Tyler, Emily Yap), Open Girls freestyle Relay Team (Emily Yap, Hetty James, Abigail Norman, Georgia Williams) and The Cannon Relay Team (Artem Rychenkov, William Perry, Hetty James, George Tester, Oliver Halliday, Makena Nesbitt, Georgia Williams, Emily Yap).
Head of swimming at Taunton School, Lisa Manley said: “This was an excellent way to finish off another unbeaten swimming season for the Senior Taunton School swimmers. A huge well done to all.”
The following day 17 Taunton Preparatory School pupils, the only school from Taunton to be represented, travelled up to the London Aquatic Centre in Stratford (home of the London 2012 Olympics) for the finals of the IAPS National Competition. Only the top 16-20 individual and relay teams in the country were invited, so the pupils had already achieved a huge amount just by qualifying from the regional rounds.
A special well done to Skye McLaughlin (U13) for winning the 25m butterfly and Oliver Heard (U13) for finishing 3rd in the 50m backstroke, both amazing achievements. Several pupils set new PB’s.
