July 10, 2007 10:07 pm
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MOULTRIE — Moss Farms Diving is coming off an outstanding performance at regional competition in which Moultrie divers won six championships and qualified 10 team members for this week’s Summer East Championships.
But Moss Farms coach Ed Goodman said he thinks there is room for improvement.
“All of our kids have the potential to dive even better in this meet,” Goodman said Tuesday. “There’s room on everyone’s list for some fine-tuning.”
The stakes are great at the East Championships, which will run Thursday through Sunday at the Montgomery Aquatic Center in Rockville, Md.
The top 12 finishers in each event qualify for the Junior National Champion-ships, which will run Aug. 7-11, in Mission Viejo, Calif.
“Everybody’s got a good shot,” Goodman said of his contingent. “I don’t know if they’ll all make it.
“But it’s within their ability to go.”
The 16-18 girls competition — which will include Moss Farms divers Anna Aguero, Kelsey Goodman, Hannah Moore and Ali Lepech — will be especially keen, Ed Goodman said.
“There are about 17 girls all with a legitimate shot at being in the top 12,” he said. “It’s going to come down to who dives well that day.”
At least one East Championship qualifier will not make the trip to the Washington, D.C., suburbs this week and another is questionable.
Henry Norman, who qualified on the 1-meter board in the 14-15 boys age group, in Columbia, S.C., last month, has decided not to compete this week in Maryland.
And Owen Blank, who will compete on the springboards in the 16-18 boys age group, is ill.
Ed Goodman said on Tuesday that he was unsure if Blank would be able to compete this weekend.
Everyone else, Goodman said, “is good to go.”
And that includes Kelsey Goodman, who won region championships on both springboards in Columbia, and Aguero, who won on both boards in New Canaan,Conn.
Ryan Helms won a region title on the 1-meter board in the 16-18 boys age group in Columbia.
Goodman said Helms appears to have no lingering effects from February wrist surgery.
“He looks good,” Goodman said. “He’s getting better every day.”
Ann Perry Blank is heading to Maryland after winning the 14-15 girls 1-meter championship in New Canaan.
Also heading to Rockville to take a shot at Junior Nationals are Jillian Braun, in the 14-15 girls age group, and Elizabeth Ann Kirkland, in the 13-and-under age group.
In addition to competing on the springboards, Aguero, Ann Perry Blank, Kirkland and Lepech will dive in the platform events.
Moore, who is pre-qualified for next month’s Senior Nationals, will try to qualify for what would be her final Junior Nationals.
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