Terra Linda Orcas Move Up in Championships

In 2009 the Terra Linda Orcas finished eighth Marin Swimming League Championships.  In 2010 the Orcas finished seventh with 918 total points. On Saturday at Indian Valley College their building program climbed another rung and finished in sixth place, realistically within reach of a fourth place finish. 

Most of the other teams in the league are taking note, except of course the Sleepy Hollow Sea Lions who easily defended their title by scoring 1935 points.

The next closest competitor to the Sea Lions was the Scott Valley Sea Serpents who had a strong showing of 1630 points.  Rounding out the top three the Rolling Hills Stingrays rang up 1254 points.  The Sea Lions, Sea Serpents and Stingrays were the only three teams in the league to score over 1000 points.

The best showing for a San Rafael team was by the Lucas Valley Lightening who came in fourth place with 966 points.  The Novato Riptide, to the Orcas two weeks prior, edged out the Orcas for fifth place with 952.5 points. 

Directly behind the Orcas the Strawberry Seals came in seventh with 913, followed by the Larkspur Tidalwaves with 731.5.  Back on June 4^, the by one point in the unusual June downpour that led to the cancellation of two other meets.

San Rafael’s own Swimarin finished ninth with 565 and the MarinwoodWaterdevils , who beat Orcas in the early part of the season back on May 14 finished in last place with 537.

R.J. Williams, 14, of the Waterdevils was the top swimmer in the county in each of his events.  Williams broke his own record in the butterfly from the prior year, and broke a record in freestyle that had stood since 1992. 

Tai Hallstein, 16, of the Orcas also was the best in the county in each of her events, and she has two more years left of swimming in her age category. 

Robert Heim, 17, of the Lucas Valley Lightening took first in each of his events, and set a record in the freestyle along the way.

Orca Johan Albers, 9, set a team record in the butterfly with a first place finish of his own.  Next year Ablers will be swimming in the same age category, so that record may not last long. 

Natalie Wambaugh, 14, took first in the breaststroke, third in the IM and sixth in freestyle.  

Morgan Saling, 15, finished first in the breaststroke and ninth in both the IM and freestyle.

At the championships Joe Shirado's 8-year-old son Michael took first place in each of his events for the Scott Valley Sea Serpents. 

On Saturday Joe told me what we all already knew, “They are all champs for coming out here today.”  I couldn’t have said it better myself.