Submitted photo
Amalia Baugh became the first-ever Eureka High swimmer to qualify for a North Coast section final over the weekend, as she continues to set new standards for the Loggers.
The standout junior was one of five H-DNL swimmers to travel for the section championships, and one of two locals to make it to the finals on Saturday.
Baugh, who last year became the first Logger to make it to the NCS in the pool in 15 years, competed in the 200-yard free and the 100-yard butterfly, qualifying for the final in the former.
She was joined in Novato by four Arcata Tigers — Yogi Trieu, Huck Russell, Henry Seiler and Teodor Demirev — who qualified together in the 200 yard medley relay.
Like Baugh, Arcata’s Russell and Trieu were making their second trip to the section meet.
Trieu also qualified in the 100 backstroke, while Russell also qualified in the 200 individual medley, with the latter also making it to the final.
“We continue to grow year after year,” Eureka and Arcata head coach Jacob Ireland said. “Having two swimmers make finals is another step forward.”
Baugh was particularly impressive and set a new PR in the 200 free, finishing 15th overall in a time of 1 minute, 57.09 seconds, which broke her previous best time in the event by almost a second and a half.
The Loggers standout also placed 25th in the 100 butterfly and Ireland described her performance as “exceptional.”
Russell, meanwhile, also impressed in the 200 IM.
The Arcata sophomore finished in a time of 1:54.55 and placed 15th out of 40 swimmers.
Trieu, a senior, barely missed out on the final in the boys 100 backstroke, placing 27th.
Submitted photo
“I thought we did very well this year,” said Ireland, who also guided five swimmers to NCS qualification a year ago. “They had very good attention to detail at practice and it paid off in the end with some awesome performances.”
Russell, Trieu, Seiler (a freshman) and Demirev (a sophomore) also impressed in their relay race together and exceeded expectations.
The Tigers foursome were seeded 38th but would finish 13 spots better than anticipated in 25th.
They dropped nearly two seconds from their seed time and finished the event in 1:41.93.
And with just one senior among the five HDN section qualifiers, they should only continue to improve ahead of 2027.
