The Morning Blend
Welcome
Complete Media Kit
SIERRA VISTA — A Buena home diving meet oftentimes finishes before spectators can even get comfortable in their seats.
With about 10 divers who compete, and frequently no opponents, they each rotate six dives and then add up the scores.
Sometimes, those dives can make a huge difference at the end of a swim meet, like at Ironwood Ridge last week when the diving scores put the Buena team over the top against the Nighthawks to take home the win, Buena’s first against IRHS.
The same thing happened against Sabino in September.
 Buena High School’s Jeffrey Rodriquez gets ready for entry during a swimming and diving meet at The Cove. (Ed Honda-Herald/Review) |
“Sabino was upset that we counted diving points and they didn’t have a team,” Buena coach Sean O’Malley said. “But our kids shouldn’t be penalized for another school not having a team.”
If an opposing school doesn’t have competing divers, Buena gets 13 automatic points added to its total score at the end of a meet.
Buena’s four divers against one from Salpointe Catholic couldn’t make up the difference, however, Thursday, and the Buena boys team ended up losing 109-72 and the girls 104-72.
But by just existing and competing, the Buena diving team has created an edge this season, and has been a big part in improving the school’s record to 6-2. From 1994-2004, the Colts never lost in the diving portion of an individual meet. And by and large, that trend continues.
The question is, why don’t more Tucson schools have a competitive diving team?
Buena coach Erin Pike said her understanding is the Tucson Unified School District can’t financially support diving programs. The only two schools Buena consistently competes against that have financially stable programs are Rincon, which is supported by the coach’s club program, and Casa Grande.
Buena’s divers didn’t fare well against Rincon this season, and won’t face Casa Grande until regionals. At most meets it’s just the Colt divers competing against themselves.
The Buena diving coaches also see fluctuation in the numbers of kids who go out for diving each year. O’Malley and Pike said they’ve seen kids lost from Buena and others schools many times to academics or other activities.
“I also think there’s not necessarily as much interest from the kids,” Pike said. “I think most think it just looks like a lot of fun, and get here and find out it’s more work than they thought it would be.”
When the Buena swimming team is away on Thursdays, the diving team heads to Tucson to the University of Arizona to have an inviational of sorts. All the divers come together to dive, and each school’s points are added on to the next day’s swim meet.
At The Cove for home meets, it’s more like a practice, and the coaches see the difference in the way the kids perform.
“There are more spectators on Wednesday in Tucson,” O’Malley said. “They take it much more seriously.”
On Thursday, almost everyone thought the Salpointe team was going to bring its divers. Everyone except the Salpointe coaches, who took diver Kali Hinderaker’s points from Wednesday to add to the score instead of bringing her down to compete.
A few fans came a little late thinking there would be more competitors, but ended up missing most of the dives. The divers were looking forward to having some competition.
Taylor Trujillo scored 172.5 on the board Thursday, which is the best she’s scored all season, according to Pike. But Salpointe’s Hinderaker’s score of 194.04 from the previous day put her on top.
Some of Buena’s divers were out for Fall Break and injuries, and the other three male divers were automatically first, second and third.
John Morelli scored 179.85, Jeffrey Rodriquez scored 154.875 and Rudy Chon scored 97.725.
Fall Break also got the better of the Buena swimmers against the defending regional champions Thursday night, but Mikayla Straton had a good day in the 100 freestyle, taking first place in 58.81.
Buena head coach Ricahrd Smith said the team looks forward to competing against Salpointe each year because it’s a good standard to measure the Colts’ season.
The Colts will finish up the regular season before regionals with a home meet next Thursday at The Cove.
Herald/Review sports reporter Liz Manring can be reached at 515-4682 or by e-mail at liz.manring@svherald.com.
Diver wrote on Oct 17, 2008 9:08 PM: