4 local high school divers advance to CIF State meet
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WALNUT — Laguna Beach High senior Chase Shipp saved the best for last on Tuesday afternoon at the CIF State diving qualifier.
He nailed his sixth and final dive, a reverse 1 ½ somersault 2 ½ twist free. The seven judges gave him a total score of 64.50, his top mark of the day.
“I was really happy with it,” Shipp said. “I knew that I had to hit it to hopefully get first. I would have liked another four points on it hopefully, but it’s all good. I felt the board really move well under my feet, and felt the entry line up pretty well.”
Shipp ended up placing a close second to Grant Schneider of Capistrano Valley Christian at the qualifier meet, held at Mt. San Antonio College. The effort was more than enough to get him to next week’s CIF State Meet for the third time.
Edison sophomore Allison McNichols and Newport Harbor juniors Corinna Ruffini and Violet Carone also advanced to the state meet. Diving finals for boys and girls will be held May 15 at Clovis Olympic Swim Complex.
McNichols qualified third from the CIF Southern Section on the girls’ side, with Ruffini in fifth. Carone took the sixth and final qualifying spot, among the 12 divers assembled for Tuesday’s meet.
The conditions were cool and misty Tuesday, so the hot tub was the area of choice when the divers weren’t actually executing their 1-meter dives.
“It could be a lot worse,” noted Shipp, who is bound for Harvard University. “Last weekend, up at Novato [at the USA Diving Junior Region 10 Championships], 20 miles per hour gusts were literally blowing people off of the boards.”
Shipp, who won his second straight CIF Southern Section Division 2 title last week, has little left to prove but is looking for a solid meet to cap his high school diving career. He finished seventh at the state meet last year, and sixth as a sophomore.
“I’m just going in there hoping to do as well as possible,” he said. “I don’t see a big difference in it being senior year. I’m just going out every time to do the best I can.”
McNichols is headed to the state meet for the first time, and said she was thrilled. She started strong on Tuesday, with her first dive, an inward 1 ½ somersault pike, netting her a score of 50.40 that tied for her best.
“That’s probably my favorite dive,” she said. “I feel like that dive, I always hit really good. I really like it. At practice it’s always a good, solid, consistent dive for me.”
Newport Harbor’s Ruffini and Carone are headed to the state meet for the second and first time, respectively.
Ruffini, who finished second at the Division 1 finals, overcame a rough start with her second dive Tuesday. Her final dive, a forward 2 ½ somersault tuck, earned a score of 50.40 that was tops among girls’ divers in the sixth round.
“My first two dives weren’t my best, but I definitely came back,” she said. “My last few, I had better scores on, which I was really stoked about. At state, I’m just going to need to be a little bit more consistent. That’s definitely something that I’ve been working on this year, consistency.”
With only the top six divers in each gender moving on, other locals saw their seasons end Tuesday. Newport Harbor junior Nikka Asgarian placed eighth at the qualifying meet on the girls’ side, while Edison senior Ian Dien finished 12th on the boys’ side.
Asgarian, who dives club for Crown Valley Divers along with Shipp and Carone, was one of the most vocal in encouraging her fellow competitors after strong dives. McNichols and Ruffini dive for Coast Divers, which is headed up by Newport Harbor coach Kaeden Cogbill.
“We’re not just competitors, we’re all really good friends,” Shipp said. “It’s a really tight-knit community. That’s one of the things that makes diving so much fun, instead of just intense, that collaborative community.”
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