There was a first for Saffron Seals Swimming Club as their club championship highlighted the strength of depth at the club.

Saffron Walden Reporter: Saffron Seals Swimming Club enjoyed a hugely successful club championships.Saffron Seals Swimming Club enjoyed a hugely successful club championships. (Image: Archant)

It was the first time the event had been run as a Swim England Licensed Level Four meet, a fact which meant the times achieved could be used as entry qualifications for future events.

And between the 92 Seals that took part, there was a total of 35 new or improved age grade times set.

On top of that many personal bests were recorded and club records needed to be updated after 10 new times were set.

Andrew de Koning, Edie Foster and Olivia Hornby all entered the record books for two events while they were joined by Daniel Belteki, Ava Cinque, Millie Denyer and Colin Peden.

Meet medals were awarded for the first three places in each event and each age group, and there were a number of very happy faces as the swimmers proudly showed off their collection of medals gained.

Points were also gained for each event entered and trophies awarded at the end of the evening.

Matilda McIntyre and de Koning lifted the prizes for the U9s while Tara Perkins and Ashton Lowe were successful for the U10s.

In the U11s the winners were Rose Denyer and Edward Taylor while Megan Cook and Beau Williams were joint-winners in the U12s with Luke Neale claiming the other trophy.

Ciara McAuley and Peden took the honours in the U13 group and Innes Dunlop and Ruben McLaughlin rounded the things off for the 14s and over.

The coaching team also awarded trophies to swimmers in each training group who were considered to have achieved over the previous swimming year.

In the black group those were Marianna Hatzixanthi and AJ Hudson while it was Daisy Hattee and Oliver Puxley in the yellows.

There were three winners in the silver group, Evie Diggins and Sarah Meanwell taking a joint prize with the third being Theo Bari, while Charlotte Lingley and Benedict Hannam took the honours in the gold group.

Millie Denyer and Bayley Jenkins were the picks in the county junior group with the county senior winners being Ruth and Oliver Wilkinson.

Finally Sophia Diggins was named club person of the year with the EML and ESL awards going to Ben Ward and Euan Freeman.