Swim England North West Girls U16s are Champions

The U16 Girls Inter-Regional Championships were held at the Liverpool Aquatics Centre this weekend the 4-5th July 2026, Group A features hosts North West Thunder, alongside West Midland Warriors, South East, and London Sharks.

North West Thunder delivered a brilliant all‑round performance to take the U16 Girls Inter Regions 2026 title.

Isobella Taylor (Radcliffe/Liverpool)

Nell Stevenson (Manchester)

Lola Dunne (Manchester)

Scarlett Massingham (Radcliffe/Manchester)

Olivia Ramírez-Nievas (Liverpool)

Andreya Lenguito (Radcliffe/Liverpool)

Jess Watson (Radcliffe/Liverpool)

Isabella Owen (Tyldesley/Manchester)

Isla Myerscough (Radcliffe/Liverpool)

Aisla Kaye (Radcliffe/Liverpool)

Sophia Stafford (Tyldesley/Manchester)

Anya Cowan (Liverpool)

Ruby Spencer (Manchester)

Darcey Tomlinson (Tyldesley/Manchester)

Head Coach – Laura Hesketh

Assistant Coach – Hannah Pyper

Team Manager – Alicia Hackney

Laura Hesketh added:

“As coach, I’m incredibly proud of how the girls stepped up, we talked about recreating the boys’ winning ways, and they matched that standard with real determination and togetherness. Their consistency, teamwork, and competitive edge shone through every game. Five wins from five says everything about their focus and quality all weekend.

West Midland Warriors – Won 14 – 0

The first match against West Midland Warriors saw the girls get use to their opponents and the “game play” set by the coaches. The girls were soon on the scoresheet, with plenty of substitutions for all girls to get “game time” and this continued in all 4 quarters of the game with Thunder scoring 14 goals in total.

South East Sharks – Won 9 – 4

Next Up were South East. We knew from watching their previous game against London that we were in for a tough game and there were a number of the players that we had to watch closely.

The first 2 quarters saw a very tight match the team showed their fighting spirit to score more goals and to win the match.

London Sharks – Won 7 – 6

Last game of the day. This was another tough match from start to finish and we saw London take the lead in the first quarter. The girls fought back in the 2nd quarter to level the score. The score was very close in the 3rd quarter and then in the 4th quarter we scored to take a 7 – 6 lead but then with the ” clock ticking down” London were again on the attack, all our girls doing a fantastic job of defending when one our players managed to “rob the ball” to stop a certain goal opportunity, pass the ball back to our goalkeeper, with the hooter sounding for the end of the game.

So it was bring on Sunday and a Semi Final place.

Semi Final South West Sharks – Won 13 – 2

On Sunday morning the girls were “on fire” from the start. The team once again playing extremely well together with some excellent passing and scoring opportunities to come out with a swell deserved place in the final.

Final – South East – Won 12 – 6

Having watched the South East in their Semi Final game against Scotland which went down to a penalty shootout and also playing the team on Saturday, we knew we were up for a tough game. The first quarter we managed to come back from a 2 goal deficit to draw 2 – 2. The 2nd quarter the team managed to score 5 goals to take the quarter 7 – 2. The 3rd quarter was once again hard fought with us only scoring 1 goal to the South East scoring 3 – the quarter finished 8 – 5 to us but at this stage the score didnt reflect how close the game was between the 2 teams. The final quarter the girls brought out their “northern grit” score a further goals 4 goals and take the title of Champions.

It also shows the depth and quality of our squad that we came away with three major awards:

North West MVP – Olivia Ramírez Nievas

Wyvern Top Goalkeeper – Izzy Taylor

Wyvern Overall MVP – Jess Watson

Those individual honours reflect the collective strength of this team and the standards they set for each other all weekend.”

Group A Fixtures & Results
Saturday 4 July
North West Thunder	14 – 0	West Midland Warriors	FT
South East	5 – 4	London Sharks	FT
South East	4 – 9	North West Thunder	FT
West Midland Warriors	2 – 16	London Sharks	FT
North West Thunder	7 – 6	London Sharks	FT
West Midland Warriors	2 – 9	South East	FT