IT IS never easy going into a big two-day meet on the back of very little training caused by the festive seasonal break.
However the young Box Hill Swim Team dug deep to produce a fantastic array of lifetime bests, club records, county qualifying times and trophies galore at the Black Swan meet at Staines at the weekend.
Molly Colbert, 11, smashed two club records and won four golds and a silver.
Her best swim came in the 100m breaststroke with a lifetime best improvement of more than five seconds to finish first.
The other golds came in 200m individual medley, 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly.
There were three bronze medals and a silver for 15-year-old Rebecca Lynch with two club records in 200m free and 50m breast.
Newly promoted to the performance squad, nine-year-old Lucia Veasey showed power and grace when she won gold in 50m backstroke, 50m and 200m freestyle - the latter in a county qualifying time, bringing her total of county times to six.
There were also four personal best swims for Alexandria Perkin. plus three gold medals, two more county times and two club records.
Mathew Brickell and team-mate Toby Everden, both 13, had a good return for their hours in the training pool.
Everden added two more county times to his list and won seven medals, including three gold, while he also set three club records.
Brickell added one more county time to bring his total to a staggering 14 events.
He won seven medals, which included five golds in the 50m butterfly, 100m IM, 200m freestyle and 50m and 200m breaststroke.
Charlie Bennett, 11, also had a successful meet winning gold in 100m freestyle with a three second improvement and adding two silvers and a bronze later in the day.
Coach Conrad Cawley said he had run out of superlatives to describe the results of his young team.
"We finished the weekend with 12 more county times (bringing the total to 92), 17 new club records and a total of 57 medals," he said.
Cawley also pointed to a gutsy performance from Max Foster in the 100m IM, which was rewarded with a personal best, a silver medal, a county time and a club record. Foster added another silver in 200m freestyle.
Fast improving Freya Johnson, aged ten, and 11-year-old Emma Annetts both added 200m freestyle county times to their respective lists, with Johnson winning a total of six medals, while Annetts had eight.
Other medallists included nine-year-old Olivia Perry with gold in 100m IM and 50mbutterfly, adding bronze in 50m breaststroke.
Felicty Everden, 11, won bronze in 50m butterfly, while Machayla Dewdney took silver in 50m freestyle and Julia Hind silver in 100m Butterfly.
Box Hill swimmers will now focus on the final chance to gain qualifying times for the 2013 County at the Cranlegh meet on January 27.
