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Starz Diver Rock at Team Orlando's All Star Invite
Written By: Starz Diving
Starz Divers “Rock the House†at Team Orlando’s All Star Invite
3 Starz Divers competed at the prestigious Orlando, FL, All Star Diving Invite last weekend. Several awesome, championship performances were accomplished!
Team Orlando’s awesome All Star Invite brought together several of the world’s best divers in this late January competition. Present were World Champions, Olympians, Olympic Medalists, aspiring Olympians, and several of our country’s best junior and collegiate divers. In this great mix of talent and accomplishment, our Starz divers were challenged to step to the plate against many of the best divers in the USA, Canada, and some South American countries.
Grace Fulwider: 10 years old…. Identified USA Diving Talent Development Program participant and first time competitor in a cosmopolitan invitational of this level – earned silver medals in the 1 meter and 3 meter competitions in her 11-under age group, and dove up in the 12-13 age group on Platform to earn a 13th place in the Platform event. Grace will be preparing to become a significant competitive factor in our country’s first Summer Junior 11-under National Championship events this summer!
Amy Cozad: 16 year’s old… Former FINA Invitational 14-15 Platform Silver Medalist and USA Diving 6th place platform finisher at the 2007 Junior National Championships - Having just recently learned 3 new dives that would be considered Olympic level competitive skills from the 10 meter platform, tested her wings on these new dives to compete in the 16-18 age group as well as the Senior Open Event – which included Olympic level and National level athletes of all ages. Amy placed 6th in the qualifying round of her age group platform event, and came back in the finals to crush her new dives and secure the gold medal. Amy also qualified for the finals in the Open Event, again developing her new diving capacity from the 10 meter to secure a 4th place finish against some of the best college Olympic potential divers in the country and against one of Canada’s leading age group platform divers. Amy’s next mission is to approach the USA Diving Spring National Championships this year and establish her place among America’s best on the junior and senior circuits.
Sarah Bacon: 11 years old… Bronze Medalist on the 1 meter event at the 2007 British National Championships (involving 4 countries represented in competition), Silver Medalist on the 1 meter and 3 meter events in the 2007 Junior National East Championships, and Gold Medalist in the 2007 Junior Pan American Games on the 1 meter and 3 meter… also an identified USA Diving Talent Development Program participant, secured 2 silver medals on the platform and 3 meter events in her age group, and was the gold medalist on the 1 meter event.
Special Meet Event Story: Under special request and review, Sarah Bacon was also accepted as the youngest participant in the Senior Open 3 Meter Challenge event. This event was the highlight of the competition. Sarah dove in the preliminaries in a field of 20 divers to secure a surprising 8th place finish, placing her in the last available position to qualify for the finals in this event.
In the first round of the finals, Sarah was to dive along side male competitors Alexandre Despatie (former World Champion and Olympic Silver Medalist) and Maxime Mourneau-ricard (both of Canada). She was to dive head-to-head in an elimination round against the 1st place preliminary qualifier and Puerto Rico’s present top diving representative - 3 time Olympian Angelique Rodriguez – age 32.
Sarah alone represented the United States in this awesome round of competition! Having put her “game face†on in the presence of great Olympians, Sarah decided to dive like an Olympian. Sarah won over the judging panel and the crowd on each round of the competition as she began to destroy her list of competitive dives. She was supposed to be the youngster who barely qualified for the finals; but instead she created a barn burner, dive-for-dive competition that was in question as to the victor through the very last dive. The crowd roared in anticipation as the reigning Olympian, Angelique, took a few deep breaths in realization that she needed to dig deep before performing her last dive in order to secure a victory over the 11 year old.
The house came down as Sarah finished with 292.45 points (after corrected scores from a computer error that had her at 288.25) and finished an amazing 2.6 points behind the Olympian who finished at 295.05 points!!! Sarah’s score, averaging 58.49 points per dive, may very well be the highest Senior optional score ever posted by a female diver at age 11 in the United States.
No issue regarding Sarah’s performance potential was in doubt as what had just happened began to sink in. Coaches, athletes, and spectators from every country represented reacted to this preliminary round of the finals as one of the greatest highlights of the entire meet. The internationally acclaimed CAMO Canadian coaching staff offered honored praise and recognition of Sarah’s performance. What an absolutely defining moment in the sport of diving and for the USA!
Next stop for Sarah? USA Diving Summer National Championship pursuit in her age group as well as summer Senior Nationals Qualifying meet in 3 meter and 3 meter synchro with diving partner Amy Cozad.
Posted 2-4-08 |
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