Wayne Grandy
June 04, 2007 10:04 pm
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MOULTRIE — The final day of the Moose Moss Invitational was a productive one for the host team.
The Moss Farms Diving Tigers took four gold medals, including two by Kelsey Goodman and one each by Ryan Helms and Ann Perry Blank, and had the top four finishers in the 16-18 girls 3-meter event.
Goodman won the 16-18 girls 1-meter event, which finished on Sunday after being suspended because of bad weather on Saturday.
She also went on to win the 3-meter event, in which teammates Hannah Moore, Ali Lepech and Anna Aguero finished second through fourth.
Helms, in his first competition since February surgery on his wrist, scored a 483.95 to win 16-18 boys 1-meter, the only event he entered.
And Ann Perry Blank finished first in 14-15 girls 3-meter, another event that had started on Saturday. She also took the silver medal in the 1-meter event held Sunday.
“I really liked that 1-2-3-4 finish,” said Moss Farms coach Ed Goodman. “It was a great meet. The kids were awesome.”
Goodman had a 353.80 to win the 1-meter event by just five points over Helen Alvey of the Atlanta Diving Association. Goodman won the Georgia High School Association’s state championship on the 1-meter board in February as a freshman.
Moore took the bronze medal in the 1-meter event with a 342.30 and Aguero was fifth with a 297.90.
Moss Farms’ Erin Goodman was 12th in the 16-girl field.
Moss Farms dominated the 3-meter competition, with Kelsey Goodman scoring a 395.30.
She was followed by Moore and her 389.25; Lepech, who had a 362.65; and Aguero, who scored a 356.40. Erin Goodman was 11th.
“I thought, overall, she had a good meet,” Goodman said of Kelsey. “And Hannah dove great in her last Moose Moss meet.”
Helms, just cleared last week to begin diving again, may have been rusty, but he was good enough to score a 483.95 to take the gold medal in the boys 16-18 1-meter springboard event.
“He was just a little bit off,” Goodman said of Helms “He didn’t do a front 3 1/2 and his 2 1/2 tuck he didn’t quite hit.
“But otherwise, he was great.”
Thad Ellis of Atlanta Diving was second with a 439.00. Moss Farms’s Owen Blank was third with a 423.25. Jacob Russell was sixth with a 381.10.
Helms won his third straight high school state championship on the 1-meter board in February, doing so with a wrist injured during Senior Nationals in August.
Two weeks after the state meet, he had a torn ligament repaired and a ganglion cyst and an unneeded bone in the wrist removed.
Rehab and physical therapy and a mission trip to Liberia kept him out of the water for much of the last three months, but he was able to turn in an outstanding performance on Sunday after deciding to enter just the 1-meter event.
Helms will continue to somewhat limit his competition schedule this summer, steering clear of the tower events, which cause the most stress on the wrist.
Ann Perry Blank had an outstanding meet, winning a gold and a silver medal.
She won the 14-15 girls 3-meter event with a 290.65.
Sloan Brazina of Charles River Diving was second with a 284.35. Moss Farms’ Jillian Braun took the bronze medal with a 270.15.
Ann Perry also took the silver medal on the 1-meter board on Sunday with a 288.10.
Brazina was first with a 294.10. Braun was third in the nine-diver field with a 271.10.
Also on Sunday, Ellis won the 16-18 boys 3-meter event with a 517.25. Owen Blank was fourth with a 417.10 and Russell was fifth with a 389.05.
Elizabeth Ann Kirkland finished a strong meet with a third-place finish on Sunday in the 13-and-under platform event, which was won by Gracia Leydon Mahoney of Charles River Diving with a 208.25.
Kirkland took the gold medal in the 13-and-under 3-meter and was second on the 1-meter springboard.
“She had a first, a second and a third,” Goodman said. “You can’t do much better than that.”
On Sunday Henry Norman was third in the 14-15 boys 3-meter, an event won by Atlanta Diving’s Cameron Cowgill. Norman was second on the 1-meter board. Cowgill also won that event with a 334.95.
Moss Farms won seven gold medals in the three-day meet, including two by Kelsey Goodman and one each by Helms, Elizabeth Ann Kirkland, Owen Blank and Ann Perry Blank.
Moore had three silver medals. Ann Perry Blank and Elizabeth Ann Kirkland also turned in second-place finishes.
Aguero, Lepech, Moore, Owen Blank, Elizabeth Ann Kirkland, Camille Kirkland and Jillian Braun each had third-place finishes. Braun took home two bronze medals.
The Moss Farms divers now will begin preparations for the Regional competition.
Helms, Braun, Elizabeth Ann Kirkland, Kelsey Goodman and Erin Goodman will compete in the Region 3 championships at the Blatt Physical Education Center on June 23-24 in Columbia, S.C.
Russell, Aguero and Lepech will go to the Region 1 championships, which will be held on June 22-24 at the New Canaan (Conn.) YMCA.
No decision has been made on where Owen Blank and Ann Perry Blank will compete.
At the region meets, divers will be trying to qualify for the Summer East Championships, to be held July 13-15 in Rockville, Md.
Qualifiers at the East and West championships will advance to the Junior Olympic Summer Nationals, to be held this year on July 25-29 in Mission Viejo, Calif.
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