By PHIL BARBER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
CONCORD — Petaluma’s Riley Scott ended a three-year drought for Redwood Empire swimmers at Concord Community Pool on Saturday during the North Coast Section Championships. Analy’s Jon Knox added another victory for good measure.
Highlighting a fruitful day for local aquatics, Scott took first place the girls’ 200-yard individual medley, while Knox was first in the boys’ 100-yard backstroke. They became the first Empire champions since Maya DiRado — then of Maria Carrillo High, now of Stanford — won the 200 IM and 100-yard freestyle in 2010.
Scott also was second in the 100 breaststroke and Knox was third in the 200 free, and they weren’t the only Sonoma County achievers. Montgomery’s Jenna Bauer (recently crowned as the Redwood Empire Large-School Girls’ Athlete of the Year) finished second in the 500 free and fourth in the 200 free, Maria Carrillo’s Piper Brockley was third in the 200 IM and fifth in the 100 breast, Carrillo’s Shannon Fong was sixth in the boys’ 100 butterfly and Windsor’s Micaela Luders was eighth in the 500 free. A quartet of Analy girls finished seventh in the 200-yard medley relay.
“This was the end meet they were looking for all year,” Tigers coach Lehla Irwin said of her team. “They were trying to lower their times for good placings at this meet.”
The Analy girls finished 15th overall with 49 points, while the Tigers boys were 19th with 40 points. The Petaluma girls were 17th (thanks entirely to Scott), the Montgomery girls were 19th and the Maria Carrillo girls 21st. The Pumas boys finished 22nd.
Northgate claimed the boys’ section championship, breaking Campolindo’s nine-year stranglehold on the pennant, while the San Ramon Valley girls won for the third time in four years.
Scott’s win in the IM felt like a real breakthrough. Swimming all four legs of the event well, and finishing with a strong push, she became the first Trojan to claim an NCS water title since divers Victorya Moreno and J.J. Aderholt both won in 2002. And Scott broke the 2-minute barrier for the first time, looking up when she was done to see 1:59.98 on the digitized pool clock.
“Some people have to like rip off their goggles to see it,” the junior said after the meet. “But I can see it without my goggles off. … I saw 1:59 at first and I was like, ‘Yes.’ Then it was 98 and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh! Barely!’ But I got it, though, so that was really exciting.”
In the 100 breast, Scott lost by two-thirds of a second to San Ramon Valley’s Heidi Poppe, an old buddy who grew up in Santa Rosa before moving to the East Bay, and a longtime friendly rival in the pool.
Knox came into Saturday’s final round fired up after setting personal bests in the 200 free, 100 back and 50 free (on a relay leg) during preliminary heats Friday.
The senior wanted to crack 1:37 in the 200 free. He had hit 1:37.70 in prelims, and came even closer Saturday as he finished in 1:37.07. Unfortunately for Knox, the winner in that event, Granada’s Maxime Rooney, had set the NCS meet record a day earlier at 1:35.69, and wasn’t far off that time in the final.
Knox made up for it by winning a close race in the 100 back, finishing in 48.82 and touching just ahead of a pair of Heritage swimmers after a late kick.
Brockley, a Maria Carrillo sophomore, found how far she could rise with no wardrobe malfunctions. Swimming the 200 IM in a Friday preliminary, her goggles came off and she struggled to maintain a straight line.
“I think she lost them completely in the middle of the backstroke,” said Dan Greaves, who works with many of the top local swimmers at his Neptune Swimming club. “That’s actually when she picked it up. She did what a great athlete would do, and went, ‘I gotta go. I can’t see, so now I gotta go.’ Most would fall apart, and she did the opposite, which is why she’s gonna be special.”
Many of these swimmers will be back at it next year. Analy, for example, is losing only Knox among its NCS qualifiers. For some, the meet at Concord marked an abrupt end to high school athletics.
“I’m sad just because high school swimming was such a big part of my swimming career, and it was just such an awesome experience,” said Bauer, who will compete at the University of Arizona next year.
“But at the same time, I’m ready to go off and start something new.”