Prep swimming: Terra Linda’s Butler leads Marin contingent to section meet

Terra Linda High’s Ben Butler came close to making history at the MCAL Championship Meet last week and he’s one of a handful of Marin swimmers with a legit shot of punching their tickets to state at this weekend’s North Coast Section championships.

“(Butler) works incredibly hard and he’s incredibly focused at what he’s doing,” TL coach Tim Baker said. “His goal is to swim Division I and there’s no doubt in my mind he’s going to attain that goal easily.”

Butler, a junior, has excelled during his first season on the high school team. Butler took up swimming when he was 8 years old and has long been a standout on the club scene but his love of baseball won out during his freshman and sophomore seasons at TL.

“I’ve always played baseball and swimming as a two-sport athlete,” Butler said. “I really started doing club swimming as a freshman. I finally did high school swimming this season because I had some (college) coaches looking at me.”

If those coaches were watching the MCAL Championship Meet on Saturday, they would have seen Butler come within one-tenth of a second of breaking the meet record in the 100-yard freestyle. Butler’s time was 45.20 seconds – 0.08 behind the mark set by Branson’s Christopher Packer in 2009.

A malfunctioning touchpad during the 100 free combined with a team-first attitude may have prevented Butler from putting his name in the meet record books on a couple of occasions. Butler’s strongest event is the 200 free but he volunteered to swim the 100 back instead.

“(Butler) swam the 100 back rather than the 200 free specifically because he could win the 100 back and no one else could have,” Baker said. “I know he wanted to swim (the 200 free) at MCALs because he wanted to go for the meet record. He was more than willing to do the 100 back to help the team.”

Butler won the 100 back as well and was crucial to two of the Trojans’ three relay victories as they scored 492 points, comfortably in front of Tam’s second-place total of 392 points. TL’s championship was the first for the program since 2013.

Although Butler’s main event is the 200 free, his best chance at winning a race at NCS – this Friday and Saturday at the Concord Community Pool – and qualifying for state will likely come in the 100 free. Foothill’s record-setting freshman phenom, Luka Mijatovic, is a heavy favorite to win the 200 free.

“I’m kinda excited about it, kinda nervous,” Butler said. “I swam next to (Mijatovic) a couple months ago and he kinda smoked me… It’ll be good to see how fast he goes and if I can keep up with him.”

Butler’s seed time of 1:43.65 puts him 10th in the 200 free. Mijatovic ranks first at 1:39.67 and is also the top-seeded swimmer in the 500 free by 13 seconds.

Butler enters the 100 free with the top-seeded time of 45.20 – just over three-tenths of a second faster than No. 2 seed Kyle Kengla of Northgate.

Other top-10 seeds from Marin at the NCS meet include TL boys 200 medley relay team (eighth); Marin Catholic’s Esme Quay (ninth, girls 50 free); Branson’s Cameron Aryanpour (seventh, boys 50 free and second, 100 fly); Tam’s Dean Gustavson (eighth, boys 50 free); MC girls 200 free relay (eighth); TL boys 200 free relay (seventh); Tam’s Addison Everage (10th, girls 100 back); TL’s Nicholas Arinduque (second, boys 100 breast); MC girls 400 free relay (10th); plus TL boys 400 free relay (10th).