Knight’s Reign Comes to an End : Swimming: Eight-time winner is eight months pregnant. She finishes ninth in La Jolla Rough Water event.

On the stairs leading down to La Jolla Cove, a stream of soaking women competitors strode past eight-time champion Beth Knight, shaking her hand in approval and shaking their heads in disbelief.

“Way to go Beth,” said one.

“You are amazing, “ said another.

Sunday afternoon marked the ninth time Del Mar’s Knight has tried to win the women’s overall title at the La Jolla Rough Water Swim.

But after eight consecutive victories, Knight, 33, came up short in her ninth try on the one-mile course.

So she had a bad year. No one can win every time, can they?

Usually not when they are eight months pregnant. Knight, expecting her first child next month, finished 13th in the women’s 30-34 age group and in the top 20 overall.

Utah swept the overall men’s and women’s races, as Salt Lake City’s Greg Holles and Park City’s Sara Shand won with slow times. Holles, 29, finished the course in 22 minutes 28.6 seconds, seven seconds faster than San Diego’s Richard Pease. Shand, 28, was eight seconds better than Andrea Verdin of San Diego with a 23:38 winning time.

Shand, the mother of a 2 1/2 year old girl, swam throughout her pregnancy and recommends it for any mother-to-be.

“Good for her,” Shand said. “It’s the best thing she can be doing right now.”

It was Shand’s first La Jolla race, and she was unaware of Knight’s dominance, but she looks forward to racing Knight under more equal circumstances.

So does Knight.

“I miss competing,” said Knight, who had to stifle the urge to go overtake an opponent who was pulling away from her during the race. “Normally, I’d be after her. But I couldn’t. It’s frustrating.”

Knight swam with the approval of her doctor and because she was afraid of getting kicked, she waited until most of the competitors in her heat had already started before she took off.

She normally swims in several open-water swims and in national masters’ swim meets year round, but she has curtailed her competition since she became pregnant.

“Why (compete) if you can’t go all out and swim like you know you can swim?” she said. “I only did this race because of tradition.”

Spectators were mixed on whether Knight should have been given a handicap.

“No way,” a race official said. “She has four feet to kick with. That’s double horsepower.”

Holles had all the power he needed to win the men’s field. What he could have used was a pair of glasses. The former Rice University swimmer with 20-100 vision veered slightly off course on the last leg of the race but didn’t rejoin the pack.

“What I was doing seemed to be working,” he said. “But I should think about getting contacts.”

In the last 25 yards, Holles was 10 yards to the left but looked about even with Pease. In the end, Holles was best positioned to take advantage of a wave that gently nudged him toward the shore.

Last year, Holles was sixth here after the lead pack took off on a blistering pace that proved too fast for him. This year’s pace was more to his liking.

“I didn’t want to get caught in any frenzy,” he said. “We didn’t go out as fast this year, but we came back harder.”

Holles’ winning time was three minutes off the 19:32 turned in by Gerry Rodrigues last year, but the course was also different and possibly slightly longer than a mile.

“This was more of a true triangle,” Holles said.

Shand, who competed in the 1982 World Games and 1987 Pan American Games, wasn’t challenged all day.

“I looked on the list and I didn’t recognize any names,” said the former Florida State swimmer who wasn’t even breathing hard when she emerged from the water. “I wasn’t loafing, but I was kind of comfortable out in front.”