York amassed 272 points at Saturday’s “Quest for the Crest” gala in Manchester, finishing fourth in the process and beating the favourites Leeds and Sheffield.
There were three key events; the 100x100m Medley Relay, and men’s and women’s races. The relay event was probably the most impressive as York recorded a terrific time of 2 hours 5 mins and 31.44 seconds, beating the previous world record set in Hamburg in August 2011 by 33 minutes.
The Medley Relay saw Jon Beardsley, Chris Unsworth, Vanessa Donhowe-Mason, Owen Wheeler, Kim Briscoe, and Michael Tansiniwho all represent York and push the team towards a remarkable achievement.
Results from the Men’s 100IM were just as impressive from York’s point of view. Toby Wong came third in the 50 and 100 freestyle races with times of 24.17 and 55.10. Jacob Saw’s times were 1.06.35 and 31.60 as he finished close behind in fourth and Chris Unsworth finished fifth for the 100m on 1.06.10.
Afterwards, the free relay team saw Wong, Beardsley, Tansini and Shaw finished third and another record was broken. This time it was the club record as the boys recorded a time of 1.40.67. It enabled the team to finish a respectable fifth overall.
And the women’s team came third overall with Briscoe finishing fourth with 1.13.77, Cary triumphing in both the 100 bk and the 50 bk , and placing second in the 200m freestyle with 2.13.71.
The freestyle relay team saw Cary, Briscoe, Eloise Man and Jo Blair finish 3rd with a respectable time of 1.59.57.
After the event, men’s captain Chris Unsworth reflected on an excellent day’s work: “To beat the likes of Leeds and Sheffield for the first time, even if the men did wear girls costumes, is a huge achievement and is really promising for next year”. President Cesca Baguley said how “these performances are especially exciting in the run up to Roses, and even with Hull bailing on Varsity, we are more than ready to thrash Lancaster in May”.