Sedona 10-year-old Renae Porteous boldly went April 3 where no local swimmer had gone for nearly a decade.

With four finishes among the top 10 girls 10 years old and younger at the Far Western National Championships, the Verde Valley High Performance swimmer became the first local girl to swim the event since August 2007.

While the last girl to qualify, Samantha Syvertsen, was 16 years old when she did it for the Sedona Swim Team, Porteous took six years off that time.

“She did amazingly well,” said her head coach, Sean Emery, who accompanied her to the Pleasanton, Calif., meet. “Improved from State, like we had planned.”

Even though Porteous ages up into 11- to 12-year-olds next year, Emery is confident she’ll be back in the state finals her first year in that age group.

“Renae has qualified already for the 11- to 12-[year-old] state times in races,” he said.

Porteous placed fifth in her age group in the finals of two events — the 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard individual medley.

“Renae has currently proved herself to be the fastest 10-and-under [swimmer] in Arizona in 50- and 100-[yard] breaststrokes,” Emery said. “Renae has the potential to go far. She has a tremendous drive and sets goals appropriately, then allows herself to achieve them.”

She also finished the 50-yard butterfly in 32 seconds and swam 1:12.10 in the preliminary heat for the 100-yard backstroke.

But those times were only good enough for 30th and 21st places, respectively — not good enough to qualify for the finals.

Emery is offering swim lessons this week as his team takes a week off before preparing for a meet in Phoenix at the end of the month, then the Beat the Heat meet in Flagstaff beginning Friday, June 3. For more information, email sean8em@gmail.com.

For all of Porteous’ times at the Far Western National Championships, please see the Wednesday, April 13, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.