With the countdown showing the South Coast Conference championships only four weeks away, the men’s dive team has stepped up in practices and meets.

The team was unchallenged in the last meet, but not for Friday’s home dual meet against Cerritos and Rio Hondo.

“Cerritos has three to four good divers,” dive coach Laurie Dawdy said.

Dive captain and sophomore diver, David Austin has continued to come out strong, placing first in all meets except at the Cuesta Invitational a few weeks ago, where he placed second.

“David has proven himself to be one of the top three divers in the state on any given day,” Stanbury said.

Freshman divers, Jose Bahena and Pedro Quinones have chosen to push each other to hopefully both be finalists for the state finals.

“[They] have a race going, sometimes Pedro wins and comes in second, but this time Jose beat Pedro. It’s fun watching them vying for the second spot,” Dawdy said.

Even freshman swimmer, Ramon Hurtado agrees that the two divers are “pretty good”.

“Jose and Pedro have been in the five, six, or seven positions at every invitational. Those guys have a real shot [for finals], they are working their tails off,” Stanbury said.

Along with Quinones, first-time freshman diver, Kelly Turner has also brought his dives from the one-meter board to the three-meter board.

“It’s amazing the improvement’s he has done,” dive captain Austin said.

A few weeks ago, Kelly scraped his shin along the dive board which set him back a few days.

” I need to work on trust and not rushing a lot on dives,” Turner said.

Another injured diver was freshman Brill Hernandez who had dislocated his shoulder at the beginning of the season.

“He will be competing against his first meet on Friday. He’s excited to compete on what he’s been working on and his arm is feeling strong,” Dawdy said.

Hernandez is also a first time diver having only taken a dive class before joining the team.

“Before the injury, I had learned nine dives in two hours. That showed Laurie I was committed. It’s unfortunate I had this injury. I’m glad she hasn’t given up on me,” Hernandez said.

The dive team is planning to not give up especially with the conference right around the corner.

“We’ll be ready. It is time for refinement, not working on new dives. Just making the old ones better,” Dawdy said.

The diving portion of the South Coast Conference will be held here at El Camino in a span of two days.

“It’s a one chance meet, and probably the best meet we host. It’s nice we have a home advantage for the biggest meet of the season,” Dawdy said.

About 30 to 35 divers will compete for the top six spots to state finals.

“Pedro or Jose or both have a really good chance of getting into the finals,” Austin said.

Stanbury agreed that the two and Austin stand a “good chance”.

“In conference they compete both one meter and three meter board dives. It comes down to what they can offer the team as far as points,” Dawdy said.