Redwood Empire swimming stars seek spot on US Rio Olympic team

Maya DiRado isn’t the only area swimmer looking to make a splash in Omaha.

Santa Rosa High and University of Tennessee grad Molly Hannis has an excellent chance of earning a spot on the U.S. team heading to Rio, according to her longtime club coach, Dan Greaves.

Hannis is ranked No. 3 in the 100-meter breaststroke behind Katie Meili and Lilly King. She is ranked eighth in the 200-meter breaststroke. The top two finishers at this week’s trials move on to the Olympics in Rio.

This is Hannis’s third Olympic trials and she has posted her fastest-ever times in the lead-up. The 14-time All-American finished second in the 200-meter breaststroke at the 2015 U.S. Nationals and 11th in the 100-meter breaststroke.

She was an NCAA champion two times over at Tennessee as a member of the 200-meter medley and 400-meter medley squads.

“She has a fighter’s chance of making the Olympic team, for sure,” said Greaves, coach of the Santa Rosa Neptunes, where both DiRado and Hannis got their start.

Greaves ought to know. The Neptunes have produced not only DiRado and Hannis, but fellow Olympic trials qualifiers Allie Davis, Rebecca Baxley, Jon Knox and Piper Brockley.

Davis, who went to Windsor High and then swam for Purdue University, qualified in the 400-meter freestyle (20th), 200-meter freestyle (27th) and 100-meter freestyle (85th). Davis was an Academic All-Big 10 selection and an honorable-mention All-American. She was The Press Democrat’s All-Empire Girls Swimmer of the Year in 2011.

Baxley, an Analy grad, will compete in the 100-meter backstroke (117th) and 200-meter backstroke (135th). Baxley was an Academic All-Big 12 selection at the University of Texas, where she will be a senior in the fall. Another Analy grad, Jon Knox, will compete in the 100-meter backstroke (149th). Knox was The Press Democrat’s All-Empire Boys Swimmer of the Year in 2014.

Piper Brockley, The Press Democrat’s All-Empire Girls Swimmer of the Year as a junior in 2015, qualified for the trials in the 100-meter breaststroke during the Arena Pro Swim Series swim meet in Orlando, Fla. in the spring. She is ranked 94th and will swim for USC in the fall.

Petaluma High grad Riley Scott, who swam to two second-place finishes for USC in the Pac-12 championship her freshman season, will swim in the 200-meter breaststroke (28rd), 100-meter breaststroke (43rd) and 200-meter medley (56th). She was The Press Democrat’s All-Empire Girls Swimmer of the Year in 2014.