Oakton Divers Step Out of their Comfort Zone

Most summer divers only dive in dual meets -- where two teams compete. Most summer divers primarily focus on breaking their personal records or on bringing home the win for their team in these dual meets. But Oakton divers are not most divers. In Oakton, the Otters, as they are so affectionately known, step outside of their comfort zone in the sport of diving (if there even is a comfort zone in diving!). Oakton divers not only dive in these scheduled dual meets, but they also dive in other meets throughout the season. Two of those meets which were recently held are the Wally Martin Meet and the Crackerjack Meet.

The Wally Martin meet, held at Oak Marr Recreation Center on Sunday, July 14th, is named after the man who introduced diving to the NVSL in 1961. This meet is unlike any other NVSL dual meet during the summer season as the only events at this meet are 3 Meter Individual and 1 Meter Synchro events.

The Otter record breakers at the Wally Martin Meet this year were:

• Isabelle Whang, who took 3rd in the Freshman Girls 3M and set the team Freshman Girls 3M record with a score of 45.75.
• Brendan Doe, who took 5th in the Junior Boys 3M and set the team Junior Boys 3M record with a score of 88.7
• Spencer Dearman, who took 5th in the Senior Boys 3M and set the team Senior Boys 3M record with a score of 214.1.

Our other Otter medalists/competitors were:

• Jon Anthony Montel – 9th in Junior Boys 3M
• Isabel Seigne and Sarah Payne – 11th in 12U Girls Synchro
• Megan Shipley and Isabel Whang – 4th in 12U Girls Synchro
• Kalina Montel and Sophie Whang – 8th in 13-18 Girls Synchro
• Sarah Gurley and Katie Vaughan – 3rd in 13-18 Girls Synchro
• Jon Anthony and Mack Scadron (Sideburn Run) – 5th in 13-18 Boys Synchro
• Spencer Dearman and Matteo Vasiliadis (Great Falls) – 4th in 13-18 Boys Synchro

The Crackerjack Meet, held at Sideburn Run on Sunday, July 21st, is the world’s largest amateur dive meet. There are divers representing many teams throughout Northern Virginia. The divers in this meet are usually fairly new to the sport of diving. The challenge for the divers at this meet is staying focused -- due to the number of competitors, there are usually two divers competing in separate events simultaneously on different diving boards.

The Otter medalists at the Crackerjack Meet this year were:

• Jack Hansen – 1st for 12-year-old boys
• Kalina Montel – 1st for 13+ girls
• JJ Roberts – 2nd for 7-year-old boys
• Benji Whang – 2nd for 8-year-old boys
• Alex Lee – 3rd for 7-year-old boys
• Riley McGatlin – 4th for 13+ boys
• Christina Angelicchio – 5th for 13+ girls
• Zac Lee – 6th for 12-year-old boys
• Max Messina – 6th for 13+ boys

The other Crackerjack competitors were:

• Avery Lane (16th for 7-year-old girls)
• Caleb McManus (9th for 8-year-old boys)
• Genevieve Wilson (30th for 9-year-old girls)
• Sarah Payne (11th for 10-year-old girls)

Photos were taken by Lisa Vaughan.