Wednesday was an active day for two Hollister High School
divers.
Wednesday was an active day for two Hollister High School divers.
Jennifer Tremblay and Danny Valenzuela motored to the coast to surf at 4 a.m., then back for the start of the school day. After school, the pair competed against Live Oak in the diving competition.
Tremblay might have won it had she not balked on her last dive, receiving no score. She ended up with 141.40 points, second to the Acorns’ Vanessa Hatakeyama, who had 166.40. The Balers Brianna Griffith was third with 133.05 points.
Valenzuela bettered his personal best by scoring 145.70 points, but the day belonged to the Acorns’ Lee Bell and Stephen Shope. Bell, 10th in the Central Coast Section last year as a freshman, totaled 201.05 points, while Shope scored 188.80.
Points were awarded 6-4-3-2-1 for Wednesday’s divers and will be part of Friday’s dual meet in Hollister. The scoring entering the meet is 10-3 in the varsity boys and 9-7 in the girls as the Acorns had two other girl divers. Rick Ward swam in the junior varsity division for the Balers and totaled 79.22.
“We dove fairly well,” said Hollister head boys swim coach Joel Sims, who serves as the Balers’ diving coach. “We’re getting better as the season goes on.”
“Hollister’s coming around,” said Olivetti. “Our boys were above average. Lee is the best boy diver in the league, while Vanessa is one of the best girl divers in the league.”
Tremblay, whose highest individual score from a judge was a 7, couldn’t figure out why she had a “no dive” on her final attempt.
“I don’t know what happened,” said Tremblay. “That’s never happened before.”
Sims projected that one of her average dives would have given her “about 23 points or so,” which would have tightened up the individual race with Hatakeyama.
Griffith’s highest score was a 6.5 from Sims, who was one of the judges along with Olivetti and Baler swimmer/diver Aaron Camacho.
“That was about average for me today,” said Griffith.
Valenzuela was steady throughout the six-dive competition with several 5s. His highest mark was a 6, which came on his second dive.
“It wasn’t one of my better days,” said Valenzuela before he found out he scored his highest total. His previous best was 138 points.
Other varsity divers from Live Oak included Nicole Glage (105.15) and Stephanie Merchant (94.55).
It takes 180 points to qualify for the CCS diving meet.
Baler bit: Camacho, the best diver on the team, is expected to dive later in the season.
