Washington swimmers making waves|Pfeiffer sets new school record

Published 10:50 am Thursday, December 17, 2009

By By KEVIN TRAVIS
Sports Editor

Charles Pfeiffer’s school-record that he set in the 500-yard freestyle last week didn’t last for long. Then again, the Washington swimmer didn’t seem to mind. After all, he’s the one that broke it again.
Pfeiffer raced to first place in the event in an exciting finish, winning in 5 minutes, 29.57 seconds. That helped the Pam Pack take second (87 points) to West Carteret (132) in Wednesday’s meet.
D.H. Conley finished third (68).
“Charles breaking his own record was the highlight,” Washington coach Spencer Pake said. “That was just a great swim.”
Washington’s other first-place finish came from the 200 free relay team. The foursome of Will Davis, York Winstead, James Martin and Luke Harris finished in 1:45.55.
The Pack quite possibly would have added more points, but was missing Brandon Niederhauser.
“That did set us back, but he doesn’t make the whole team,” Pake said. “That’s what I’m trying to get everybody to realize. It takes others to step up, and others did step up today.”
Meanwhile, the Washington girls had another solid performance, winning with 115 points. West Carteret (89) and D.H. Conley (72) followed.
The Pack racked up eight first-place finishes.
“The girls had a good meet,” Pake said. “It was a really fast meet so they got kind of tired at the end, but I’m really pleased with their effort.
“The expectations for the girls are so high because they’ve been doing so well. We had some solid swims.”
Emily Pfeiffer captured top honors in the 200 individual medley (2:21.31) and 100 yard fly (1:06.04).
Shannon Niederhauser captured first in the 50 yard free (28.34), Michaela Daniels won the 100 yard breast (1:22.61), Riziki Omonde took the 100 yard free (59.87) and freshman sensation Kaitlyn Richards took the 500 yard free (6:04.93).
The foursome of Richards, Pfeiffer, Omonde and Niederhauser took first in both the 200 medley relay (2:04.51) and the 400 free relay (4:10.47).
On the boys side, runner-up finishes went to Pfeiffer in the 200 free (2:02.31), Davis in the 200 individual medley (2:26.53), Winstead in the 100 fly (1:07.64) and Harris in the 100 back (1:18.02).
Seconds for the girls went to Richards in the 200 free (2:17.18), Niederhauser in the 100 free (1:05.17), Omonde in the 100 back (1:10.62) and Jessie Howard in the 100 breast (1:25.42).
The Pack is off for two weeks before hitting the pool again.