SIR John Deane's College mens and ladies swim teams were in action on Thursday in the North West Divisional Relay Championships.

Macclesfield Sports Complex was the venue for the English Schools Swimming Association event, where the senior mens team for both the freestyle and medley races were Russell Craig, Patrick Neech, Daniel Bell and team captain Daniel Bell.

Despite each swimmer recording new personal best times in both events, they still finished outside the top three up against eight other strong college squads.

Team manager Lesley McLaughlin said: "This is the first time in three years that SJD has put out a mens team and they all trained very hard at the college pool, and did very well."

The senior ladies had a lot to live up to this year as SJD won both the medley and freestyle divisional championships last year and went on to the national final at Crystal Palace.

This year's team consisted of captain Caroline Mellor, Anna Gilligan, Jo Charlton, Julia Capper and Becky Wright.

Just one tenth of a second was the difference between the girls and third place in the medley, but this spurred them on to greater things in the freestyle.

They led from start to finish, each swimmer increasing the lead in their leg, and they sped away to take first place and finish as regional champions for 2000.