A SQUAD of 17 Bobcats competed at the Stockport Metro November Meet which attracted plenty of attention as it was the final weekend to obtain qualifying times for short course Nationals, which are being held at Sheffield in December.

Teams travelled from far and wide to compete including teams from Leinster of Ireland, the Brussels International Team, Ellesmere College, City of Birmingham, City of Liverpool and Wirral Metro to name a few.

On the Friday evening, two of Bobcats youngest swimmers, Matthew Boyd, 11, and 12-year-old Ben Havers-Strong competed in the 1500m event.

Both boys swam superbly with Matthew finishing second in the 11-year-old category and Ben in fourth place in the 12-year-old category. Matthew then swam the following day in the 200m IM, 100m freestyle, 50m and 200m backstroke events, achieving third place in the 400m freestyle with Ben swimming the 200m butterfly.

The pair then went on the following day to represent North Lancashire at the Inter-Association Gala held at Wigan - alongside team-mates Elliot Norman, Lily Duckworth and Olivia McGinty - who all won medals and contributed to the team being placed second in the competition with Liverpool & District the overall winners.

Mia Sheridan and Lily Duckworth, both 12, swam some great races with Mia finishing second place in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, third in the 200m breaststroke, fourth in the 200m IM and fifth in the 50m butterfly.

Lily went even better, clinching first place in the 50m freestyle and third in the 50m butterfly and was fourth in both the 100m breaststroke and 100m backstroke events.

Girls Team Captain, Katie Rennolds, 19, competed in nine events over the weekend and gained some great personal bests and reaching finals in the 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle events.

Other swimmers who competed were Alice Fox, Caitlin Birkett-Bentle, Colette Meade, Darcy Williams, Ellie Taylor, Elliot Norman, Grace Pickles, Hannah Procter, Harry Pilkington, Miranda Bower, Thomas Mackay and William Beaven who all produced great personal bests.

Rennolds, William Beaven, Harry Pilkington, Miranda Bower and Thomas Mackay will all be competing at the ASA short course National event in Sheffield.

And Katie Rilett-Young (S6) and Thomas Brown (S14) will compete at the National Para-Swimming competition in Manchester - with the rest of the squad competing at the Preston Christmas Meet and Swim Trafford Meet.

Coach Noel Horton was delighted that his swimmers did so well against their top rivals.

“The Stockport Meet always attracts very high competition and for a squad of 17 to be accepted shows how the squad is growing from strength to strength,” said Gorton. “I was very happy with their performance and pleased for the five swimmers who were chosen to represent North Lancs.”