This year the TCAL was back and bigger than ever with 11 teams from all over the state. The event brought thousands to the Dresden Swim Center on what is now known to be the Best Day in Dresden Pool History with the total revenue for the village from the event tipping the scales at $13,700. Cars were parked in both the Elementary and Middle School parking lots as well as overflowing the pool lot. Inside the fence, it was a sea of tents with swimmers and spectators filling all of the available space in the vast swim center. Roughly 950 swimmers attended the event out of 1463 in the league but each swimmer has to swim in three meets to be eligible for the championship.
Chevington Woods Kingfish showed up to win their 18th straight Division I TCAL championship title. The team out of Pickerington has been in existence now for 49 years and has a history of producing Olympic Trial qualifiers, National Champions, and All-Americans. Just as their legacy shows, they were here to win and they did, time and time again, picking up a whopping 22 first-place finishes. In the history of the TCAL Championships the Chevington Woods Kingfish hold the fastest time records for 27 of the events. They finished the day with a team score of 728.
The Groveport Fighting Fish took second place in Division I with a team score of 524 and 14 first-place wins against the competition.
For Division II the Valley View Gators took the top spot with their 9 total number one positions in the contest and six fastest time records held in the history of the event. The Gators ended the night with a team score of 466.
The Dresden Dorados swam up in second place for Division II with three first-place finishes and nine second-place finishes with a total team score for the Championship at 299.
The other teams in the Championship were Moundbuilders (DI – 457), Pataskala (DI – 455), Huntington Hills (DI – 385), Canal Winchester (DII – 200), Johnstown (DII – 129), Pickerington (DII – 65), and Baltimore (DII – 50).
We look forward to next year’s event and wait to see if it breaks the record for best day in pool history.
