Team Orlando Diving’s 2009 National Team is second in the Nation. The Junior Championships were held August 1st - 8th in Moultrie, GA. TOD had 14 divers competing against the best in the USA.
Age Group National Championships
Avery Saunders: 11 + Under. First time National qualifier, 8 years old, youngest in the competition, “Little Bit”.
Grace Cable: 11+Under. First time National qualifier, placed 6th in the 3M Final. Reverse dive for 8’s…wow!
Jack Dowd: 11 + Under. First time National qualifier, placed 6th in the 1M and 3M Finals. Very good performance.
Victoria Chan: 12-13. First time National qualifier, placed 13th in the 1M Prelim, barely missing making the finals.
Shannon Potter: 14-15. 11th place 3M and 6th place 1M. Good performance in a very tough age group.
Cinzia Calabretta: 16-18. 9th place on platform. She broke her hand right before Nationals . Very tough to dive platform under the circumstances. We are so proud of how tough she was and how well she dived! Her back 1 ½ with 2 ½ twists was the highest scoring dive of the contest, she received 8 and 8 ½! Way to go Legs/Cinzoid!
Cheri Hammond: 16-18. 7th place on 3M. She performed 2 of the hardest dives in the meet.
Junior National Championships
Wallace Layland was our top diver. Wally won the 12-13 Platform event on the first day. She was 2nd on 1M and 4th on 3M. Wallace has made the United States Junior National Team and will travel to Calgary, Canada Sept. 8th-14th to compete in the Junior Pan American Championships. Nice “Bear”
Thea Vock age 16-18 came 2nd on 1M and dived brilliantly to place 3rd on Platform. She placed 4th on 3M, and barely missed making the US National Team by only a point. Thea won both springboard prelims and was the BEST, most consistent all around diver of the meet.
Sydney Couch, thrilled us all when she hit a set of optionals in the 14-15 girls 3M Final for straight 8’s. She hit every optional dive in the Final and placed 2nd! She was fantastic on 10M too, finishing 4th . “Syd Vicious” missed making the US National team by less than a point….bummer, but we’re so proud of your year!!! You’ll get ‘em next year kid.
Shelby Lerew learned a platform list of dives this year for the first time and placed 5th in the 14-15 Platform event.
She is only 13, but because of international rules, her late birthday puts her with the 14-15 year olds. Good job “Doo-Doo”.
Tom Neubacher, 16-18 placed 6th on 1M and 3M. He was 9th on Platform. Tom will be a Senior this year. His performance opened the eyes of many college coaches looking to recruit talent to the NCAA.
Joey Dowd placed 8th on 12-13 1M and 12th on platform. Joe is a former US National Team member who took 2 years off diving due to illness. He is back, and has accomplished a lot this year.
Chelsea Uranaka qualified for the Nationals on Platform. She is traditionally and springboard diver, but turned it up a notch and learned a platfrom list of dives at the end of the summer to get to the Nationals. Nice “Squirt”.
Senior National Championships
Team Orlando had 4 divers at the Senior National Championships; Tom Neubacher 3M, Mike Neubacher, Platform, Cheri Hammond 3M and Thea Vock 1M, 3M and Platform. The National Championships is attended by all Olympians and US Open National level divers. Mike Neubacher finished 8th in Men’s Platform, our top diver of the meet! Mike will be attending Florida State University this fall. Thea Vock placed 4th in the Women’s 3m Semi-Final and finished 9th overall. Thea placed 6th in the Platform Quarter-Final , barely missed making the final by 2 points.
Tom dived very consistently making the Semi-Final.
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