SRJC’s splendid indoor pool is clean again but young competitive swimmers from as far off as Eureka still are shaking off a disgusting stunt by two Marin County boys that ruined a huge championship swim meet.

 
More than 600 kids who’d come to town over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend to compete at the meet, organized by Sonoma County’s storied Neptunes swim club, went home early after the pool was abruptly closed.

 
It happened after feces appeared in the pool — not once, but on two straight days. You’d hope it was an accident of the sort that on occasion does happen at public pools.

 
But the truth surfaced: two high-school boys on the Marin Pirates had egged each other on to foul the waters. It was a great, costly disappointment when the meet was halted for rechlorination and clean-up after the first discovery and cancelled entirely after the second.

 
Both boys were booted off the Marin Pirates. Neptunes head coach Dan Greaves is one of many people praising longtime Pirates coach Warren Lager for the up-front, responsible way he’s responded to the mess at the JC pool.

 
Lager told me he knows his players’ offense had financial consequences for many. “We recognize there’s remuneration that’s going to occur,” he said.

At the JC, Jim Forkum, the athletics director and dean, said the college loves big swim-club meets and will continue to welcome them. He does expect that coaches may refer to the recent mishap when going over last-minute do’s and don’ts with their kids.

“It’s a shame,” Forkum said, “you had a couple of knuckleheads do something stupid that affected a lot of people.”