Kingfish win second place

***image1***The Kaiserslautern Kingfish Swim Team celebrated a big win Nov. 10 after coming out on top at the European Forces Swim League North Region Long Distance Championship Meet held in Baumholder. 

Teams from Heidelberg, Berlin, SHAPE, Bamberg, and Stuttgart put the pressure on the Kingfish in the 800m free, 1,500m free, and the 400m individual medly long distance events. 

The Kaiserslautern swimmers and coaches had been working up to the long distance meet for several months by putting in long hours at practice, swimming several miles daily, and building up their endurance in and out of the pool. The majority of Kingfish swimmers came away with one or two personal best times during the meet.  Swimmers who achieved personal best times in all three long distance events were Lucas Cummin, Hannah Shortsleeve, and Stephen Tarnowski. 

Team Captain Blake Davis had this to say about his team’s performance: “I am proud of my teammates who swam at the long distance meet. I am especially proud of the 9- to 11-year-old swimmers.  It took endurance and skill to swim the 800m event at such a young age.” 

The teams had no time to rest because the next day brought on a fast-paced pentathlon meet with each swimmer competing in up to five individual events.  The swimmers’ best times from each of these events will be compiled at the end of the season and their pentathlon placing and medals will be awarded at the EFSL Championship Meet in February.  The Kingfish swimmers gave the crowd a great show with almost all of the team members dropping time and bringing home multiple personal best swims.  Those swimmers who achieved personal bests in all of the events that they competed in were Isabelle Bishop, Connor Davis, Taylor Glass and Sean Lein.  The team competed hard and showed off some great sportsmanship which brought them a hard-earned second place finish.

(Courtesy of Kaiserslautern Kingfish Swim Team)