The Ripon girls swim team captured the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III championship Friday at District 56 in Elk Grove.

The Indians are also sending their girls 200-yard freestyle relay team along with diver Brooklyn Goeckeritz to the California Interscholastic Federation Swimming & Diving Championships next week at Clovis Olympic Swim Complex.

The top three swimmers in each varsity event and along with anyone outside the top three who meets qualifying times advance to the state meet.

Ripon’s varsity girls netted 136 points, edging out second-place St. Mary’s 132. Davis Sr. claimed the Division I boys and girls titles. The Division II crowns were won by the St. Francis girls and Granite Bay boys. St. Mary’s took the Division III boys championship.

Valerie Chun, Faith Fasani, Madeline Staley and Crystallynn Tran were the driving force behind Ripon’s banner day. They placed third in the 200 free relay in 1 minute, 38.77 seconds. The same quartet took fifth in the 400 free in 3:35.85.

Each of them also qualified for the final heats in individual events. Swimmers with the top eight times in the trials on Wednesday (girls) and Thursday (boys) advanced to the championship final, while the next eight compete in the consolation heat.

Fasani, a sophomore, ended up fifth overall in the 100 free final, crossing the finish in 51.83. She also took 10th in the 200 free (1:55.09).

Staley joined Fasani in both events, placing seventh in the 100 free (52.36) and 14th in the 200 free (1:57.16).

Chun and Tran both made the 100 butterfly final, finishing seventh (58.76) and eighth (59.01), respectively.

Ripon’s boys 200 free relay competed in the consolation final, placing 15th in 1:30.89. The team is comprised of Brody Biedermann, Owen Curtiss, Chetan Harvey and Nathan Selna.

Sierra junior Keira Brink qualified for two finals, placing ninth in the 50 free (24.70) and 14th in the 100 free (54.57).

Lathrop freshman Victoria Guzman made the 500 free consolation final and took 14th place in 5:17.94. She nearly qualified for day 2 in the 200 free but came up a little more than a second short.

Ripon freshman Reyna Biederman competed in two championship finals at the frosh-soph level. She took fourth in the 50 free (25.15) and sixth in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.34).

Matthew Lee finished sixth in the frosh-soph boys 50 free (22.71) and 14th in the 100 free (51.79).

Sierra’s Bianca Fraser took 16th in the frosh-soph 100 butterfly (1:04.80).

Ripon’s Goeckeritz is headed to Clovis for the second straight year. She finished as the SJS runner-up with 427.45 points in the diving finals at St. Mary’s on April 23. Goeckeritz is her school’s first state qualifier for diving.

The state meet takes place May 9-11 at Clovis West High.

BASEBALL

Ripon Christian 11, Denair 1 (6)

The Knights (12-2, 19-8 overall) locked up sole possession of the Southern Athletic League title with the one-sided road victory.

Two-way contributor Dustin Hoekstra was the winning pitcher and top hitter. He compiled 12 strikeouts in the mercy-shortened three-hitter, walking three. At the plate, he was 3 for 4 with a double, a triple, four runs and two RBIs.

Joshua Buffalow also went 3 for 4, hitting double and scoring once. Luke Crivello added a triple and three runs in his 2-for-3 effort. Noah DeBruyn and Ricky Van Unen both hit a double and knocked in two runs.

Brackets for the SJS playoffs will be released this afternoon. The postseason begins next Wednesday.