PARKSTONE Grammar School crashed through the rankings to come within striking distance of the medals at the English Schools Relay Championships in Coventry.

Plymouth College’s 15-year-old London 2012 star Ruta Meilutyte was among their opponents in both intermediate girls’ relays – the first Olympic champion to swim in an English schools event.

But the Parkstone team of Emily Clarke, Jade Norman, Inez Griffin and Vicky Joy were unfazed, surging into the 4x50m freestyle final sixth fastest in a long-course time of 1:59.20, then improving to fifth place in 1:58.90.

They were ranked eighth before the gala and 15th in the medley re-lay, in which they improved to 10th in 2:18.82, just missing the final.

Bournemouth School for Girls made both junior girls’ finals, holding the sixth-place ranking in the freestyle in 1:59.61 (heat 1:58.32) and coming seventh in the medley in 2:17.56 (heat 2:15.27), in which they were seeded fifth.

Team members were Rebecca Cummings, Jasmine Holmes, Bethan O’Hara, Lucy Brain (freestyle) and Katy Hebditch (medley).

Ex-Bournemouth Dolphin Tom Kingham won two gold medals with Millfield’s junior boys’ teams, while Swim Bournemouth’s Jack Burton also struck gold with Plymouth College’s senior boys’ medley team.

Jay Lelliott, who joined Swim Bournemouth in the summer, was in the senior boys’ team from Thomas Hardye School, Dorchester, who came equal fourth in the senior medley final, missing a medal by 0.3sec, and equal 13th in the freestyle.