Beaconhurst seniors strike gold at school championships
Beaconhurst’s senior swim team are celebrating after taking first place at the Central Schools Swimming Championships.
The pupils won gold for the first time since the school began taking part in the annual competition eight years ago.
Meanwhile, the junior swim team took second place following the contest at The PEAK in Stirling.
Overall,Team Beaconhurst was won 13 gold, eight silver and one bronze at the gala with 11 pupils narrowly missing medals in fourth place.
The swimmers’impressive results mean a number of pupils will go forward to compete in the Scottish Schools Swimming Championships in January.
Director of Sport Judith Graham was delighted with the pupils’performances. She said:“These are our best results ever and, after coming a close second for the past two years, it was great to finally take first place in the senior competition.
“It was the parents of two of our swimmers, Jamie Eason and Jack Towers, who initially got Beaconhurst involved in the contest and since then we’ve built up the swimming club to become an essential part of the school’s sports programme.
“We now have a Swim Scholar Logan Eason, who is Jamie’s brother, and lots more pupils taking part in competition and achieving good results.”
Standout results came from junior school pupils Cameron MacMillan and Murray Dickson who both won gold medals in each of their two individual events.
They were also part of the junior boys `A’relay team – alongside Struan Craig and Sebastiano Pacitti - who took first place and knocked 10 seconds off their personal best team time in the process.
The senior school’s two mixed relay teams took second and third place in their races which had a big impact on gaining the points which led to their overall win.
Other notable performances saw Logan Eason win one gold and two silvers - scoring 16 points for his team – for his individual events and he also won silver as part of the second placed mixed relay `A’team.
Triathlon scholars Daniel Hesp and Sophia Green both won golds in each of their two individual events while Daniel was part of the relay `B’team who came third while Sophia was in the `A’ team which won a silver medal.
Mrs Graham added:“Both the senior and the junior teams had been practising hard with their coach Helen Tobin in the run up to the competition.
“We also had some work experience students from Stirling University and our two Sports Prefects, Jodie Currie and Liam Nelson, helping out with coaching.
“Jodie and Liam are both swimmers and they were passing on their own experiences and tips to the younger pupils which was a big help and it’s great to have such good role models in the school.”
She also praised the efforts of eight year-old Zac Downie who was the school’s youngest swimmer to take part and competed well as part of the boys’`B’team relay squad.
The Beaconhurst swimmers are now in training for the Scottish Schools Championships next month.