Kingfish wrap up regular season with a win


On Jan. 19, the Kaiserslautern Kingfish swim team finished its regular season with an overwhelming victory at the Ramstein Aquatic Center.
 
“We started out a bit slow, but really poured it on in the middle and end of the meet,” said coach Bob Clinton.

The charge was led again by team co-captain Everett Plocek, who set two new team records.  In the 100-meter butterfly, he set a new record of 1:03.03, beating the old time of 1:03.51. He also broke the old team record of 25.79 set by Drew Thomas in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 25.72. He then broke his own record a few hours later with the lead-off in the freestyle relay with a time of 25.41.

Not to be outdone, Connor Davis, 19, broke his own 200-meter butterfly record with a new time of 2:25.78. Setting new RAC records were Matthew Cembrano, 10, in the 50-meter breastroke; Sam Bassett, 14, in the 200 butterfly; Rachel Plescha, 17, in the 200- and the 400-meter freestyle; and Lexy Meints, 16, in the 200-meter breastroke. 

Additional outstanding swims were turned in the 13/14 team of Ben Davis, Lena Reed, Ann Johnson and Sam Bassett in the 200-meter freestyle relay, when they broke the two-minute barrier with a time of 1:59.10.

Individuals who also swam incredible races included Danielle Davis, 13, who raced the top 17-year-old girl to the finish and dropped three seconds. Emily Ettrich, 12, put on a clinic for racing to the end in her 200-meter freestyle. In the 400-meter freestyle, Preston Harrison, 13, showed strong determination and dropped more than 25 seconds from his seed time. Eighty-six swimmers achieved a personal record in at least one event, with 18 of them turning in total time drops in the double digits. Among those swimmers, Harrison dropped 48.59, Kathleen Nicholson, 9, subtracted 46.25 seconds, Savannah Champagne, 10, shed 37.60, Patrick Lindberg, 13, lost 24.98 seconds, Delaney Hanna, 10, lost 24.45, Madison Elliott, 8, had a 23.44 second drop in the 200-meter freestyle, and Andrew Hendrickson, 8, had a 21.76 second total drop.

The Kingfish have a division meet Saturday in Berlin. 

(Courtesy of the Kaiserslautern Kingfish)