RVHS sends Fischer off to state swim meet
Josie Sellers | Beacon
Caleb Fischer’s body guards Andrew Martin and Reas Pepper jokingly make sure it’s all clear for him after his walk around River View High School in celebration of his trip to the state swimming meet. Josie Sellers | Beacon
WARSAW – When he was a freshman, Caleb Fischer promised his swim coach they were going to make it to state by his senior year and he kept his word.
“Last year he missed it by 0.33 of a second and that was three places ahead of him,” said Kristina King, head swimming coach at River View High School. “They take 24 and he was 27. I’m so happy for him this year.”
Fischer, a senior at RVHS, qualified for the 2018 state swim meet when he placed first in the boy’s 100 yard breaststroke at the district meet held Feb. 16 at Ohio University in Athens.
“It’s my specialty,” he said. “I started it my freshman year and stuck with it. It feels smooth and is easy to get with.”
His district time of 1:00.11 earned him a 12th place seed at the state meet.
“I’m pretty excited to get to go,” Fischer said. “It took a lot of drive and hard work to get there.”
The prelims for state will be at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22 at C.T. Branin Natatorium at Canton McKinley High School. River View’s student body sent him off to state on Feb. 21 with the pep band escorting him through the hallways lined with students.
“It was very nice and heartwarming,” Fischer said.
This is King’s fifth season coaching at River View and Caleb is her first athlete to go to state.
“He has such drive,” she said. “He came in as your typical goofy freshman boy, but at the end of that season something just clicked when he made it to district with the 4 x 100 relay team. He’s put in the extra practice…..and when he’s not doing that he’s helping the younger kids.”
Fischer plans to continue swimming after graduation and said right now his top school of choice is Mount Union College.
“My advice to the younger swimmers would be if you want something so bad, you have to work at it,” he said.
Category: High School, Sports
