Stirling’s Duncan Scott Scores Trio Of Wins On Night 2 Of BUCS C’ships

2016 BUCS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• November 11th-13th, 2016
• British Universities & Colleges Sport Championships
• Ponds Forge, Sheffield
• 25m (Short Course Meters)
• Meet Central
• Day 1 Recap

Night 2 of the 2016 British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Short Court Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield saw three meet records bite the dust, along with two Scottish National Records. 2016 Olympic silver medalist Duncan Scott from University of Stirling brought the heat, clinching a treble of BUCS titles to help his squad in the team standings.

Through tonight’s finals session, Loughborough University still remains on top of the overall team points with 215, but with performances like Scott’s, Stirling is charging right behind, ready to snatch a 13th consecutive title away from the current leader.

Through Day 2:

Key Performances:

Scott’s being member of Great Britain’s silver medal-winning 4x200m freestyle relay in Rio was a culmination of the 19-year-old’s sharp upward trajectory in the pool over the past year. Turning heads in the freestyle events locally and abroad, Scott was also a finalist in the men’s 100m freestyle race in Rio, where the Stirling student-athlete scored a stunning 5th place in a new Scottish National Record time of 48.01.

Flash forward to tonight and Scott collected a trio of victories in Sheffield, proving there’s no signs of stopping when it comes to Scott and short course. He fired off a swift 1:44.11 200m free to take the event win by well over a second, representing the only racer of the field to dip beneath the 1:45-threshold. His outing tonight ranks as the teen’s personal best to kick-off the evening.

Scott also stood atop the podium tonight in the men’s 100m butterfly, a lesser-swum event for the Stirling stud. Clocking a mark of 53.43 in prelims, Scott shaved almost a second off in the final race, touching in 52.45 for the win.

The Scot’s real fireworks came however in the men’s 50m freestyle individual event. Scott raced this same event as part of his 2015 BUCS repertoire, finishing 5th last year in a time of 22.40. He took things to an entirely new level tonight, however, cranking out a mighty 21.92 to dip beneath the 22-second threshold for the first time in his young career. In doing so, Scott scored a shiny new short course Scottish National Record, beating the old mark of 21.94 held by Jack Thorpe since 2014.

Not stopping there, however, Scott lowered that newly-set National Record as a member of his squad’s 4×50 freestyle team relay. He led off the race in a mark of 21.84 to shave another solid .08 of a second off of his National Record and help move his team to the gold medal-grabbing position in a total time of 1:28.55.

New Stirling teammate, Kathleen Dawson, who just joined the #BleedGreen machine this fall, also had a heck of a night, registering yet another Scottish National Record. Dawson became the first Scottish woman to go sub-1:00 in the LCM 100m backstroke and holds her nation’s records in the 50m/100m/200m backstroke events across both LCM and SCM.

Tonight, she lowered her 200m backstroke SCM mark, taking it to a new low of 2:06.05 for the win. That crushed her old time of 2:06.74 she swam in June of 2015 in Toronto. Dawson also checked in with an individual 50m backstroke time of 27.45 for the victory tonight, touching just .10 off of the meet record.

Stirling breaststroke swimmer and 2016 Olympian Craig Benson collected two wins on the night, beating his teammate, and 2016 European Champion Ross Murdoch, in the process. First in the men’s 50m breaststroke, the two battled intensely to the wall, but Benson wound up with the win in a time of 27.31 to Murdoch’s 27.78.

The 200m breaststroke also saw Benson pull out the win, earning a time of 2:09.75, well off his meet record of 2:06.12 set last year. Edinburgh’s Calum Tait finished in 2:11.18 to also beat Murdoch, who ended up with the bronze in 2:12.18.

Other races of note included Aimee Willmott‘s win in the women’s 400m IM, earning her 2nd consecutive title in a time of 4:36.06. She also raced to a silver medal in the women’s 200m breaststroke, touching behind winner Emily Jones of Edinburgh. The women registered times of 2:27.25 (Jones) and 2:27.46 (Willmott). For Willmott, the veteran 2016 Olympian raced a total of 9 times on the day.

Anna Hopkin also lit up the crowd tonight, blasting a new BUCS Record in the women’s 50m freestyle. The old record of 24.60 held by Emma Wilkins since 2013 barely made it past prelims, as Hopkin put the time on notice with her morning swim of 24.64. She made it happen in the final, clocking a 24.54 to earn the event gold as the only swimmer to go sub-25.

Additional Winners:

• Max Litchfield and brother, Joe Litchfield, both of Sheffield Hallam, finished 1-2 in the men’s 400m IM final. Elder brother, Max, touched in 4:08.76 as the only swimmer to venture into sub-4:10 territory. Brother Joe touched in 4:14.06 for silver.
• Sheffield’s Maya Westlake took the women’s 200m freestyle in a mark of 1:57.09.
• Craig McNally from West of Scot racked up two wins on the night, taking the men’s 50m backstroke in 24.48, followed by the men’s 200m backstroke in 1:55.54.
• Loughborough saw a pair of individual wins by Beth Aitchison and Harriett West, who won the 50m breaststroke (30.49) and 100m butterlfy (58.72), respectively.
• The women’s 4×50 freesytle team relay established a new BUCS Record of 1:41.25 to win gold tonight.

Tomorrow’s prelims start at 9am local.