PBC was crowned "Munster Schools Swimming Champions" yesterday in UL Arena at the Munster Senior Schools Championships.

The shield was presented to the school who won the senior 4 x 50m freestyle relay, and the performances of some of our individual events made sure that we emerged victoriously.

The boy's relay team of Peter Higgins, Neddie Irwin, Illan Wall & David Carroll beat our nearest rivals, CBC, with over 3 seconds to spare, while the senior medley relay (back, breast, fly & free) claimed silver medals in the earlier event.

Our Junior relay teams also claimed Munster medals in their respective finals. The junior teams consisting of Conor Twomey, Fiachra Wall, Jack Bugler and Louis Flynn claimed a silver medal in the medley relay and a bronze in the freestyle relay.

Neddie Irwin was crowned Munster Champion in the ‘senior’ 100m Backstroke, dipping under the minute mark in the heats and again in the finals for dominant performances on backstroke in Munster, and won silver in the 200m IM, while Paul Higgins was crowned Munster Champion in the ‘intermediate’ 100m Fly and the 100 Freestyle events - again, dominant in the 100m freestyle and finishing strongest in a very close butterfly final.

Peter Higgins won silver in the ‘senior’ finals of the 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly, while there were top 5 finishes for David Carroll and Illan Wall in the 100m backstroke finals.

Jude Malley made finals in the intermediate 100m breaststroke and again in the 100m freestyle, while Andrew O’Leary made strong personal best times in his 100m backstroke and 200IM events. Tom McCarthy continued the good form of PBC swimmers by swimming two personal best times in the 100m breast and 100m freestyle, and John Curtin competed in the 100m backstroke with a 1:07.4 finish.

Our young junior swimmers were happy with their individual performances with final appearances from Conor Twomey, Louis Flynn and Fiachra Wall, but they were all extremely proud to win their first PBC school relay medals on the day.

PBC have now qualified for the Irish Schools Relay finals which will be held in Castlebar in April on the same day as the Irish Schools Interpros at the same event. PBC will be well-represented at this season's interpros so we will look forward to that competition when it comes around.

Congratulations to all swimmers involved and their coach Mick McComack on this fantastic achievement.