He takes one last breath and raises his arms into position. He jumps off the edge of the one-meter board, bends his knees bringing his body into a tight ball, holds his shins and points his toes.
This one-and-a-half tuck dive by freshman Jose Bahena put him back in the running for a state title at the South Coast Conference Championships April 10-11 at EC’s pool.
“At the time, Jose was in seventh place,” swim coach Corey Stanbury said. “When he hit that dive, it put him back in the running.”
Stanbury said the dive team entered the conference championships with confidence and did fantastic in the conference.
“My goal was to have at least one diver in the state championships,” dive coach Laurie Dawdy said. “In the conference, there is only one chance.”
For David Austin, the conference championships were his only chance as this was his last season on the team, but he pulled through and placed first in the conference and state championships.
“David was really excited. He really enjoyed the moment,” Bahena said.
As the team congratulated Austin and told him he had broken the 2008 three-meter dive board college record of 253.5 points held by Bryan Franzen with 287.80 points, his first response was: “Whoa.”
“Now he holds the record for both the one-meter and three-meter,” Bahena said. “David was confident he was going to do fine.”
That was the case for freshman Pedro Quinones, who also made it to the state finals at the Belmont Plaza in Long Beach April 23-25.
“A lot of times Pedro came up to me and told me he was nervous,” Bahena said.
After the first day of conference competition, Quinones pulled it together and the next morning told his teammates: “Today, we are going to do it.”
Bahena did come extremely close to qualifying for state finals; he placed third in the conference, but missed state by a single point, landing in seventh place as an alternate.
“I definitely did the best to my ability,” Bahena said.
Bahena looks back on the season with satisfaction, placing third in the conference championships and seventh overall in Southern California.
“I passed my goal for the season to beat two hundred points in a single meet. Overall, I earned two-hundred and eleven points for the one-meter dives,” Bahena said.
The dive team contributed a total of 130 points for the men, who placed second in the conference.
“The men this season were the best they have ever been,” Stanbury said.
The best six divers of the state were in the Southern California region.
“You can imagine the intensity. Divers were performing well and after every dive, people were clapping,” Bahena said.
Dawdy said she felt that intensity as she placed the first place medal over Austin’s neck and couldn’t hold back the tears.
“We aimed to win state finals together, a goal we worked on,” Dawdy said.
“It was a great season with great people,” Stanbury said.