Kingfish notch another win

On Sept. 22, the Kaiserslautern Kingfish swim team hosted the Wiesbaden Wahoos, Heidelberg Sea Lions, Lakenheath Barracudas, Eifel Sharks and the Hohenfels Hurricanes in a six-way matchup at the Ramstein Aquatic Center. Once again, the Kingfish came away with the victory, posting 1,420 points in their third straight victory of the season.

“Never give in,” said head coach Bob Clinton. And the Kingfish swimmers took that advice to heart.

Lexie Meints, 16, swam head-to-head against Lauren Brashear of Wiesbaden in the 100-meter breastroke and squeaked out the victory by a 0.01 second margin, shaving .90 off her personal best time in the process.

Danielle Davis, 13, and Everett Plocek, 16, set new team records in the 200-meter breastroke, hitting the wall at 3:09.94 and 2:42.16, respectively.    

Other races occurred in the 800-meter time trials held after the meet. The time trials are held to allow swimmers to qualify for the European Forces Swim League Long Distance Championships, to be held in November in Antwerp, Belgium.

Davis and Rachel Plescha, 16, competed nose to nose in their heat, pushing each other to time drops of 23.57 and 28.06 seconds respectively, with Plescha taking the heat in a .12 photo-finish victory.

Sam Basset, 13, and William Griffin, 15, also had an exciting finish, with Bassett surging in the last 100 meters to overtake Griffin by 0.12. The all-out effort by Griffin to keep his lead resulted in a time drop of 1:09.50 off his 2011 personal best.

Davis and Plocek also won all of their individual events, along with Penelope Washington, 11, and Joshua Choi, 12. Jocelyn Choi left the pool with five personal best times, and Sarah Fischer, Jenna Macias, Sadie Peloquin and Washington obtained four personal best times each. Seventy-one swimmers attained at least one personal best time.

Seven new European Swim League Championships qualifiers also emerged from the pool, bringing the Kingfish qualifier total to 48, with 24 swimmers qualifying for the long distance event.

The next Kingfish swim meet is scheduled for Oct. 6 at the Ramstein Aquatic Center. If results so far are any indication, the Kaiserslautern Kingfish are well on their way to another successful season.

(Courtesy of the Kaiserslautern Kingfish swim team)