March Invitational meet draws 39 divers

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

The March Invitational Diving Meet March 19 at the Fallbrook High School pool attracted 39 high school divers.

"More than I expected," said meet organizer Sean Redmond, who is also Fallbrook High School's diving coach.

Six of the divers at the meet are on the Fallbrook High School team, including boys six-dive winner Felix Alcorn. Three of the Warriors were in the girls six-dive event; Alcorn was one of two Fallbrook divers who competed in the boys six-dive competition, and junior Payton Wilson was in the girls 11-dive group.

Seven judges assessed each dive. The two highest scores and the two lowest scores were discarded, and the three middle scores were added together and then multiplied by the dive's degree of difficulty to determine the score for each dive.

Because the meet was sanctioned by the CIF San Diego Section, a qualifying score obtained at the meet can be used to qualify for the CIF meet. For this year's meet, a score of 250 points or higher on 11 dives qualifies both boys and girls for the CIF meet. A six-dive score of 195 or higher is an automatic CIF meet qualifying score while a score of at least 185 gives that diver a consideration score.

Alcorn, who is a freshman, had a score of 119.30 points. The day before he had qualified for the CIF meet with a six-dive score of 202.70 points. The qualification gave him the luxury of working on new dives during the invitational, and his score of 119.30 points was lower than what he achieved the previous day although still high enough to win the division.

"He actually had some new dives on that one," Redmond said. "He decided to try something else."

Matias Valkama of Ramona was second in the boys six-dive event with 112.10 points. Fallbrook sophomore Jamison Ewig placed third after scoring 82.75 points.

Hannah Pham of San Marcos won the girls six-dive competition with 158.00 points. Fallbrook sophomore Ava Papoulias was second with 151.90 points. El Capitan diver Rhema Rose had the third-place score of 146.80 points. Fallbrook freshman Maile McMahon accumulated 146.35 points for fourth place. Fallbrook's other diver in that event, freshman Lucia Mochel, placed 13th and scored 102.60 points.

Jordan Alsted of Valhalla won the girls 11-dive portion of the meet with a score of 409.45 points. Wilson scored 277.85 points for eighth place.

Ezra Purcell of Torrey Pines won the boys 11-dive event with 451.20 points.