Metros Diving Champions Crowned!

By Reach for the Wall Staff;
Photos by Marcus Chen @marcus.chen.photo

February 7-8 Boyds, MD
The diving portion of Metro’s started Wednesday night with the Boys competition and concluded last night (Thursday) with the Girls. On the Boys boards, Tynan O’Donohue from Whitman was 20 points clear of the field after the first 5 dives. Much of the drama for 1st place was done after the third round of dives, where Tynan completed the Forward 1 1/2 Somersault 2 Twist Free with a degree of difficulty 2.6, which earned him 62 points. This was not only his highest scoring dive/highest degree of difficulty but also the highest scoring dive for any of the divers on the night and put him in the lead for the remainder of the competition.

This was the first time Tynan has captured the Metro championship after finishing 3rd in 2023. His Whitman teammate, James Skipper, also held firm control of 2nd place throughout the 11 rounds of diving, and their other teammate Samuel Adelson finished 9th. These three placing in the top 10 give the Whitman Boys team a large boost in the team standings heading into the swimming events on Saturday with 59 points.

Full Results:

The Girls took to the boards Thursday night, with Whitman looking to repeat what the boys had done the night before. Flint Hill’s Michayla Eisenberg had a different plan-after the first 5 dives she held a 20 point margin over Whitman’s top diver Kaarina Williams.

This was a big night for Michayla as she has steadily moved up the leaderboard year-by-year at this event, having placed 3rd last year and 4th in 2022. In the semifinal round, which consists of 3 dives, Michayla increased her lead to 22.75 points over Kaarina, with consistent scoring on her ‘relatively’ lower difficulty dives. However, the real drama was brewing in the battle for 3rd place. Elise Pantezzi from Quince Orchard and Kateryna Peresunko from Whitman finished the semifinal round with 285.50 (Pantezzi) to 285.30 (Peresunko).

In the Final round of dives (3 dives) Michayla again was consistent, finishing the competition with a Forward 1 1/2 Somersault 1 Twist Free, earning 7’s and 7.5’s for a total of 48.40, her 3rd best scoring dive of the meet and the individual championship!

Back to the battle for 3rd, the first dive of the final round for Peresunko was a Inward 1 1/2 Somersault Tuck, where she earned 7.5’s and 7’s for 46.2 points. Pantezzi threw a Reverse 1 1/2 Somersault Tuck and earned 5.5’s and 6’s for 36.75 points, which was enough of a margin over the next two dives for Peresunko to capture 3rd place! Whitman’s Anne Kessner was 5th and Addison Lockard finished 12th, and like the Boys on Wednesday, giving the Whitman girls a good advantage in the team standings with 68 points.

Full Results: