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Boys 8 and under wait to get called up for a race Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Boys 8 and under wait to get called up for a race Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

Boys 8 and under wait to get called up for a race Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Boys 8 and under wait to get called up for a race Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

Neve Wilson, 11, of the Stuttgart Piranhas, looks at her race card before the start of a race Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Neve Wilson, 11, of the Stuttgart Piranhas, looks at her race card before the start of a race Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

Wiesbaden's Lexy Meints, 17, dominated her age bracket, winning all three of her races Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Meints won the 100-meter freestyle, butterfly and breaststroke, as well as the 400-meter freestyle.

Wiesbaden's Lexy Meints, 17, dominated her age bracket, winning all three of her races Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Meints won the 100-meter freestyle, butterfly and breaststroke, as well as the 400-meter freestyle. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

Lakenheath's Alaina Scifo, 16, provided a dominant performance in the 15-to 16-year-old girls 400-meter freestyle, winning the race by nearly half a pool length Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Lakenheath's Alaina Scifo, 16, provided a dominant performance in the 15-to 16-year-old girls 400-meter freestyle, winning the race by nearly half a pool length Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

Boys 8 and under wait to be called up for a race Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Boys 8 and under wait to be called up for a race Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

Kaiserslautern's Everett Plocek grinds out a win in the 17-to 19-year-old boys 100-meter butterfly Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Kaiserslautern's Everett Plocek grinds out a win in the 17-to 19-year-old boys 100-meter butterfly Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

Kaiserslautern's Scott Rustenhaven, 14, won his heat in the 13-to 14-year old boys' 100-meter butterfly, but Lakenheath's Dominic Scifo won the race and broke the European Forces Swim League record in the process Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Kaiserslautern's Scott Rustenhaven, 14, won his heat in the 13-to 14-year old boys' 100-meter butterfly, but Lakenheath's Dominic Scifo won the race and broke the European Forces Swim League record in the process Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

NATO Marlins 11-year-old powerhouse Sebastian Lunak drives his way to victory in the 50-meter butterfly Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

NATO Marlins 11-year-old powerhouse Sebastian Lunak drives his way to victory in the 50-meter butterfly Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

Stuttgart's Katie Nugent, 11, powers her way to victory in the 50-meter butterfly Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Stuttgart's Katie Nugent, 11, powers her way to victory in the 50-meter butterfly Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

Naples Tiger Shark Sean Quirk, 10, has a nearly glassy pool ahead of him during his winning race in the 50-meter butterfly for 10-year-old boys Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Naples Tiger Shark Sean Quirk, 10, has a nearly glassy pool ahead of him during his winning race in the 50-meter butterfly for 10-year-old boys Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

Sigonella's CJ Davis, 8, gulps a breath of air on his way to winning the boys 8 and under 50-meter butterfly Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Sigonella's CJ Davis, 8, gulps a breath of air on his way to winning the boys 8 and under 50-meter butterfly Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

Neve Wilson, 11, of the Stuttgart Piranhas, finished first in her heat in her age group's 100-meter individual medley Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands, but the fastest time went to her teammate, Katie Nugent.

Neve Wilson, 11, of the Stuttgart Piranhas, finished first in her heat in her age group's 100-meter individual medley Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, at the European Forces Swim League championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands, but the fastest time went to her teammate, Katie Nugent. (Matt Millham/Stars and Stripes)

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands — A dozen records fell on the first day of the European Forces Swim League championships Saturday as more than 500 swimmers from 18 teams took to the water in the Netherlands.

A small group of the league’s top performers – including some familiar names – dominated many of the age groups, leaving little room for upsets.

Sebastian Lunak, an 11-year-old powerhouse for the NATO Marlins from Brussels, set the pace overall with wins in all four of his races – the 100-meter individual medley, 50-meter butterfly, 50 breast stroke and the 200 freestyle – and three new league records.

That kind of performance is the kind of thing that happens at the EFSL championships, the one time of year when all the league’s teams are in one place, raising the level of competition seen at the average meet.

“It definitely makes you swim faster,” Lakenheath’s Alaina Scifo said.

After Saturday, the Barracuda’s Scifo is on pace to take the title of top girl for 15-to 16-year olds, with wins in the 100-meter freestyle, butterfly and breaststroke, as well as the 400-meter freestyle.

In the last race, she fell short of her goal of breaking the EFSL record, but finished nearly half a pool length ahead of the 400 freestyle’s second-place swimmer for one of the most dominant performances of the meet.

“It comes down to training,” Everett Plocek, a member of the Kaiserslautern Kingfish said. “You know, you train the whole year for this meet, and you just try to go out there and swim fast. There’s not much you can do when you’re here except rely on the training that you’ve done and hopefully it’ll pay off.”

Plocek won all three of the races he swam – the 100-meter freestyle, butterfly and breaststroke – and broke his own EFSL record for the breaststroke, which he set last month.

One of the oldest records to fall was the 13-to 14-year old boy’s 100-meter butterfly, which held for nearly 13 years before Scifo’s 14-year-old brother Dominic bested it by nearly 2.5 seconds. The younger Scifo also felled a three-year-old record for the 100-meter breast stroke in his bracket while winning three out of his four races.

His one loss, though, came in one of the best duels of the championships.

Dominic Scifo had the best time in the 400-meter freestyle coming into the championships, but only by .7 seconds. The second best time belonged to Stuttgart’s Hayden Kasavicha, who started in the lane next to Scifo.

The two were nearly neck and neck throughout the entire race, putting up the fastest splits either swimmer had all season and, it turned out, faster than anyone in the league had done in their age group.

Kasavicha edged out Scifo by a little more than a half second for the win and the record.

Kasavicha’s teammate Katie Nugent was untouchable among the 11-year-old girls, winning all four of her races and setting two records – one in the 50-meter breaststroke and another in the 200-meter freestyle, a race she won by more than 10 seconds.

Other records set on the first day included:

Brian Burke, 15-16 boys, Sigonella Swordfish (100-meter freestyle); Kyla Hallam, 13-14 girls, Naples Tiger Sharks (100-meter breaststroke); Annika Zimmerer, 9 girls, Kaiserslautern Kingfish (200-meter freestyle).

millham.matthew@stripes.com

Twitter: @mattmillham

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