GC Divers capture national championships
The GC Divers club had a phenomenal showing at the AT&T USA National Diving competition earlier this month, capturing team and women’s national championships.
The Junior portion of the meet ended with the team winning with 204 points, with the the second-place finishers at 121 points.
The women’s team overall scored 155 points to 72 points for the next closest team.
More than 700 athletes qualified for the nationals competition, and GC Divers had the most divers at the competition, with 23 athletes total.
“We had some stars on our team who finished in the top three or won their age group, but we won the overall meet because of the depth of our talent,” coach Krista Klein said. “In fact, GC Divers had divers in the finals (top 12) in all of the age brackets and in every event. Their most dominant age group was the 12-13 girls. Maysi Richards won the three meter and the platform events. Her teammate Hailey Hernandez was third and Alli Ward was seventh in that age group.
“Maysi qualified to represent the USA in Cuba at the Junior Pan American games in October for the 12-13 girls.”
Two other GC Divers who also earned a spot on the international team were Emily Grund and Mackenzie Willborn in the synchronized event.
“Emily is great under pressure,” Klein said. “She is a diver we can always count on to step it up a notch in finals. Mackenzie has been a leader on our team supporting and encouraging the younger divers. She will be missed as she heads off to dive at Duke this fall.”
The following divers were also an important part of the team: 11U Kamryn Wong, Dillan Delugo; 12-13 Kamryn Bordges, Gina Hinthorn, Isabelle LeBlanc, Jackson Miller, Brady Ruth and Sam Woods; 14-15 Bridget O’Neil, Summer Westover, Kinzie Etzelmiller, Reid Klein, C.J. Durant, John David Spence and Kevin Doody; 16-18 Sarah Voss and Nathaniel Hernandez.
“The GC Divers led the meet from day one and continued to stay in first place throughout the competition,” Klein said. “We started off on the first day with Maysi winning the platform event. It set the tone for the rest of the divers.”
GC Divers won the nationals four years ago, but have been second to Ohio State for the past three years by just a few points.
According to a news release, “with only one diver from the National elite team leaving for college, the team should only be stronger next year.”
“We are looking at another year of training and our divers are incredibly dedicated and focused,” Klein said. “They came to the meet prepared and it showed. The most exciting part of the end of the season is looking ahead to next year. We have an incredible team of divers training at the Keller ISD pool, the Carroll ISD pool and the Westside LISD pool.
“By using three different facilities, we are able to teach more young divers the sport and discover incredible talent. We have the system in our program to take talented athletes and turn them into international competitors.”
GC Divers will have at least four divers from their program at the 2016 Olympic trials.
The team has been labeled a Center of Excellence by United States Diving.
They was established in 1993 when its owner, Krista Klein, retired from international diving. Klein was a national and NCAA champion and attended Southern Methodist University.
This story was originally published August 17, 2015 at 3:36 PM with the headline "GC Divers capture national championships."