SKIPTON'S younger squad swimmers made their mark at the North East Regional Age Group Long Course Championships at Leeds.

Over 60 clubs were represented at the Level One event with 498 swimmers competing in 2,762 races.

Team Skipton were represented by Charlotte Leigh, 14 of Skipton Girls High, Skipton. Zeb Heyes, 13 of St John Fisher Catholic High School, Harrogate, Madison Turner, 13 of West Craven High School, Barnoldswick, Harvey Pennington, 13 of Park High School, Colne and Charlotte Kenneth, also 13 of St Mary’s Catholic High School, Menston. Will Oliver, 12 of Ermysted’s, Skipton and Kaye Fenton, 12 of South Craven High School and finally Lily Mae Pratt, 11 of Skipton Girls High, Skipton.

Unfortunately, talented 11-year-old Jack Jenkinson who had qualified for an impressive 15 events was unable to compete due to injury.

Harvey Pennington qualified for eight events and secured long-course personal best times in all but one.

His top placing was sixth in the 200m freestyle final with a time of 2.18.23 seconds. He also earned a well-deserved seventh place in the 50m with a time of 29.16 seconds and a further ninth place in the 400m with a time of 4.45.93. Pennington was ninth in the final of the 200m backstroke in 2.37.23 while also competing in the100m freestyle, 50m and 100m backstroke and the 200m individual medley.

Twelve-year-old Will Oliver competed in five events including all three breaststroke heats, 200m butterfly and the 400m individual medley.

He made the finals of the gruelling 400 individual medley and came sixth with a personal best of 6.00.87.

He also made 10th place in the 50m breaststroke final with a personal best of 39.37.

Madison Turner of Salterforth qualified for six events and competed in five.

She picked up personal best times in both the 200 and 400m freestyle heats and showed her talent for backstroke by swimming straight into the finals of the 100 and 200m events.

Turner came 10th in the 100m backstroke with a time of 1.11.64 and was ninth in the 200 with a time of 2.30.53.

Kaye Fenton of Silsden qualified for six events and she picked up a personal best time of 30.47 in the 50m freestyle and secured a place in the final where she came home seventh in 30.43.

She went on to swim the 100m freestyle with a new best time of 1.05.99 and made the final where she was sixth in 1.05.66.

Lily Mae Pratt of Barnoldswick had her most successful NER’s to date achieving six regional qualifying times in the 50, 100 and 400m freestyle events and the 50, 100 and 200m backstroke races.

Pratt put in some strong solid performances and earned new long-course personal best times in 100m freestyle with a time of 1.07.51 seconds, 100m backstroke in 1.18.13 and 50m backstroke in a time of 35.89.

Charlotte Leigh and Charlotte Kenneth qualified for all three breaststroke events.

Leigh earned a new personal best in the 100m of 1.25.52 while set her best-ever times in the 50 and 200m breaststroke with 38.52 and 2.59.59 respectively.

Zeb Heys qualified for both the 100m and 200m backstroke events and gained valuable experience competing in a 50m pool.