Two St Albans schools have been celebrating swimming success and qualification to the national stage. 

Both Sandringham and St Columba's will be heading to the English Schools Swimming Association's National Team Championships, to be held on November 19 at London Aquatics Centre. 

It was the senior boys of Sandringham who secured passage. 

The team of Kieran Birkett, Nathanial Mapley, Daniel Holliss and J.Coleman, all of whom swim for City of St Albans, and L.Payne, who is a member of Hatfield, took part at the Hertfordshire & Buckinghamshire qualifiers. 

Birkett, Holliss, Mapley and Payne won the medley relay on the night in a time that qualified them ninth fastest across the entire country. 

Sandringham’s head of PE, Andy Cracknell, said: "It was great to see what these boys do so well week, in week out for their respective clubs. 

"I was taken aback with their level of professionalism to swimming and even more so when even though the boys won the medley well on the night against very stiff opposition. 

"They managed a qualifying time in the freestyle but still found areas for improvement and understood what will work better for them in a 50m pool that they know well. 

"I know that not only the whole of the PE department but the whole school are extremely proud that our boys our in the mix with such prestigious schools." Herts Advertiser:

It was the senior girls who triumphed for St Columba’s College. 

The medley relay team was made up of Katie Knight, Caitlin Hartley, Valeria Giron and Antonia Jubb who qualified nationally in seventh place. 

Giron, Hartley and Jubb, who all swim for Hatfield, combined with CoStA's Cara Threader on the freestyle relay to qualify 24th. 

Knight is another who swims for St Albans. Herts Advertiser:

For Hartley, Jubb, Threader and Knight, this will be their final time competing as a team as they are now in their final year of school together. 

The quartet began swimming together when they all attended How Wood Primary School. 

St Columba's junior boys have also qualified for the national finals.

City of St Albans Swimming Club began the National Arena League season with a hard-fought fourth-place finish at Inspire Luton Sports Village.

Having finished in a best-ever fourth place in the London Premier League last year, their swimmers went stroke for stroke against rivals from Watford, Hatfield, Shiverers, Putteridge, Hackney Aquatics and winners Camden Swiss Cottage.

There were notable swims and PBs from Jasmine Scott, Anna Zapisetskaya, Joseph Subba and Choiu Ki Cheng in the U12 group, as Alice Azzopardi, Lucas Geffin, Zak Fellows, Louis Robson, Susannah Read and Isla Black impressed for the U14s.

Sophie Holliss, George Hooper, Tigerlily Donald and Georgia Hamilton shone for the U16s as Nathanial Mapley starred in the open category.

Coach Paul Wollaston said: "With many of our swimmers already posting some excellent PBs this year, we went into the first round event confident of some good performances against much larger opponents.

"Our core of high performance swimmers led by example and their friendly interactions with our younger squad members gave them such a confidence boost.

"We would very much like to thank Watford Swimming Club for hosting the event and those volunteer officials without whom these events couldn’t take place."