This year’s JD Invitational meet in Etobicoke was the first Group 1 meet attended by our club. In order to attend Nationals, each diver needs to have achieved a qualifying score at a group 1 meet. Our Tier 1 divers attended this meet and rocked the house down. Many divers achieved qualifying scores, far in excess of the standard. With competition in each age group from other Ontario clubs, Quebec divers, Manitoba divers, and our eastern clubs, the competition was fierce. Our divers stayed strong and dove well.
Kate Brechun is diving open this year. Open is for any and all divers who would like to try for Senior Standards. Kate led the competition, taking gold on 1 meter, beating the national standard by 36+ points and taking silver on the 3 meter. She is qualified for both events for seniors.
Raine Mahony, our little “E” diver, was amazing in her event. “E” is not a national qualifying event, but for our younger divers to test their skills. She took gold on 1 meter and silver on 3 meter. Raine’s only disappointment for the weekend was a crazy judge, who under judged her on her inward dive tuck. After executing a beautiful inward, the judges awarded her with 8’s and 9’s, except for one crazy lady who gave her a 7. (Note: Crazy lady is our fearless President LOL) We can only hope that the crazy lady never gets a chance to make this mistake again.
Our three musketeers – Andy, Nate and Ali – competed in all three events – with great results. On the 1 meter Nate placed 4th, Andy placed 5th and Ali placed 7th. On the 3 meter board, Nate took bronze, Ali placed 6th and Andrew placed 7th. All the musketeers far exceeded the qualifying score on the 3 meter. On both the 1 meter and 3 meter, all our divers achieved national qualifying scores and are now fully qualified for Junior Nationals! On platform, Nate took Silver, Ali was 6th and Andrew was 8th. Nate achieved national scores, and is fully qualified on platform.
Mohamed, our “C” diver competed in the springboard events. On 1 and 3 meter he came in 4th, just shy of the qualifying scores at 219.55 and 221.55, respectively. Every meet he has attended he has come closer and closer to the National Scores, with his scores jumping 20 points from meet to meet.
Brett Gillis took bronze on 1 meter, with qualifying scores. His platform event was amazing to watch, with each diver ripping all their compulsories. Brett was amazing in his diving, executing his compulsory dives for 8’s and 9’s across the board. It was a close fight to the finish, and Brett took silver. An injury kept him out of the 3 meter event, but he is now fully qualified for 1 meter and tower for junior nationals.
Brawn Mahony, made his first appearance at a Level 1 meet this year, in Division B. He has been working hard in order to learn the required number of dives for Level 1. In fact, he learned THREE new dives, the night before leaving for the meet. He performed all his dives well, placing 9th on the 1 meter with a score of 196.30. Way to go Brawn!
C.J. Moore had a small group of divers to contend with, but he performed very well. On 1 meter he took gold and on 3 meter he took bronze. But tower was the event for C.J. this weekend. His optionals were done extremely well, giving him a record high score of 496.80 – qualifying score for this event is 315. He took gold on tower. He is now qualified for juniors in all three events.
You can find all the details of the meet on the dive Ontario web site at http://www.diveontario.com/
