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'Tsunami' strikes
Meister defended her crown at the Marmonte League Diving Finals last Friday at Rancho Simi Community Park pool, where she posted a total score of 442.25 in 11 dives. Meister, who won the event during her freshman and sophomore years, barely edged out Amanda Stines of Thousand Oaks, who came in second with a total of 425.75. While the action on the girls' side was close through most of the day, Newbury Park's Johnny "Tsunami" Sapinoso ran away with the boys' title. Sapinoso's total score of 419.35 was more than enough to fend off Jordan Hoffman from Royal, who came in second at 364.05. Ryan Alderman of Thousand Oaks finished in third place with a score of 310.10. Sapinoso's best dives were his fourth and fifth, where he posted a 37 on each. By the end of the ninth round, Sapinoso had a lead of 341.15 to 298.90. He coasted to victory from there on out.
"I'm a gymnast along with being a diver, so last year was a strange transition," Sapinoso said. "Gymnastics and diving have two very different landings. One of them you land on your feet, and the other one you go through water. I still need to work a little on my entries, but I did a good job today." Newbury Park head coach Arsen Javadian was impressed with Sapinoso's effort. "I thought he did his doubleback very well and his frontandone-half-full-twist well, too," Javadian said. "I'm very proud of him and all the divers because it's hard to stay focused for 11 dives. It's really nice to come out here and watch everyone perform beautiful dives when they are doing well." For Meister, defending her league crown this time around was a lot more relaxing than during her sophomore season. "I was a lot more nervous last year defending the title than I was this year," Meister said. "But in all honesty, that's something I don't think about. I just want to go in to every competition and beat my scores from the last time. That has helped me improve this season over last season." For the second year in a row Stines finished behind Meister, while Jenny Simpson of Westlake earned third-place honors with a score of 359.10. With Stines and Meister only juniors, there's no reason to think the two won't continue to battle next year as well. However, Stines said the rivalry is a friendly one. "Obviously, there's going to be a rivalry there, but it's not a heated one because me and Melanie are really good friends," Stines said. Although Melanie's older sister Melissa coaches at Westlake, she was happy for her younger sister. "It's fun to come out and see all the kids do well," the older Meister said. "It's a good atmosphere here, and I think the kids on all the teams are very friendly with each other." Meister showed no signs of a letdown early on as judges gave her a score of 39.5 (out of 50) in her first dive and a 39 on her second. Meister remained consistent the rest of the day, never scoring less than a six from any single judge. Meister posted her highest score of 40 on her sixth dive. Stines cut the lead after nine rounds to less than 10 points, but in the 10th round Meister scored a 38 while the Thousand Oaks junior could only muster a 20, her lowest score of the day. "I think my best dives today were my back and inward dives," Meister said. "Usually my reverse and twisters aren't as good, but I've been practicing them a lot these past couple of weeks, and I surprised myself on how well I did on those today." The diving finals also showed a glimpse of the future as Taylor Hoyt of Westlake and Alyssa Anderson of Royal won the junior varsity championships. Anderson scored 84.95 in three dives while Hoyt had a 76.90. |
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