Kingfish Swim team members competed at the 12 & Under New England Championships held last month at Attleboro High School. The event is held semi-annually for qualifying swimmers from New England swim teams. This year there were 58 teams participating, with the Kingfish providing nine swimmers, including four from Duxbury.{sidebar id=4}

Jessie Goldberg (11-12) qualified for the girls’ 50-yard freestyle, while Ally Wolff (11-12) swam the girls’ 50-yard breaststroke. Both girls, along with Hannah Hutchinson and Kayla Burgess (Kingston), swam the girls’ (11-12) 200-yard medley relay where they crushed (2:14) their original record made the previous week at Regionals.{sidebar id=1}

Ian Wilson provided the biggest time drop of the weekend, taking six seconds off his 200-yard backstroke time to go all out at 2:33.89. He closed the meet with strong performances in the 100-yard butterfly (1:16) and 100-yard individual medley (1:12). As part of the Men’s 11-12 200-yard medley relay, Wilson and teammates Chris Churchill (Plymouth), Michael Tautiva (Marshfield), and Brendan English (Kingston), swam to a 14th-place finish with their best time of 2:18.12.  The 12 & under Kingfish team practices at the Kingsbury Club in Kingston and is coached by Brad Harris, Denise Buckley, and Lynn Boorghesani.

Pat O’Neal and Hunter Chaisson headed to the 2008 Speedo Championship Series for the Eastern Zone region in Long Island, NY in early March. Both swimmers qualified for two events and participated in four relays. Chaisson achieved personal bests in the 100 and 200-meter backstroke by dropping three and four seconds while swimming a 1:06 and 2:22, respectively.  O’Neal crushed his times in his 400-meter freestyle by dropping 15 seconds and swimming a 4:27, then came back to the 400-meter individual medley and dropped 19 seconds off his best time to swim a 5:04. The trip was the first national meet for both swimmers.

The Kingfish swim team is making a splash out of the pool as well, while still staying in the water. On March 1, despite the rain, Kingfish Swimming participated in the Jordan Hospital Polar Plunge that benefited the JHC Cancer Center at Jordan Hospital. Kingfish set out in costume, wearing their Kingfish uniforms and wrapping a fish net around them, making them “A School of Kingfish.”  Duxbury swimmer Molly Davis was the junior chairperson of the event.  Each year the team participates in an event that benefits a non-profit organization.

Kingfish tryouts for the long-course season will take place April 15 and 17 at 4 p.m. at the Kingsbury Club pool.  For more information on the team, visit www.kingfishswimming.com.{sidebar id=6}

Ally Wolff, Hannah Hutchinson, Brendan English (Kingston), Kayla Burgess (Kingston), Jessie Goldberg and Coach Brad Harris.