Courtesy: USA Diving
AUBURN, Ala. – The teams of Bailee Sturgill (Noblesville, Ind./Unattached)/Lily Witte (Dexter, Mich./Johansen Diving Academy) and Anna Kwong (Omaha, Neb./Unattached)/Sophie Verzyl (Columbia, S.C./Unattached) were crowned co-national champions in women’s synchronized 3-meter, while Carson Tyler (Moultrie, Ga./Johansen Diving Academy) and Joshua Hedberg (Noblesville, Ind./Indiana International School of Diving) won men’s synchronized 10-meter as the USA Diving National Championships continued Sunday.
Both Sturgill/Witte and Kwong/Verzyl totaled 534.12 points over two lists of women’s 3-meter synchro dives. Taylor Fox (Mission Viejo, Calif./Longhorn Aquatics) and Hailey Hernandez (Southlake, Texas/Longhorn Aquatics) took the bronze position with 515.88 points.
Kwong and Verzyl were first after the morning preliminaries with 267.54 points to Sturgill and Witte’s 252.72. Scores are cumulative, and Sturgill and Witte slowly narrowed the gap in the final before the contest ended in a tie.
“I don’t think there’s any words that can really describe how this feels. I mean, hitting the water after our last dive, I knew we needed to go big, and it was just a great feeling knowing we did that,” Sturgill said. “Then they hit big. This is how it was meant to be.”
The lead was down to 1.56 points after the fourth round. Sturgill and Witte finished their list with 66.36 points on a back 2 ½ tuck, with Kwong and Verzyl receiving 64.80 points on a front 2 ½ with one twist.
“I think we definitely knew we needed to hit it. After seeing them go, I definitely felt a little bit of nerves, but we just did what we had to do,” Verzyl said. “It feels kind of weird, but I’m happy that’s it’s them because we love them. We were literally sitting next to them the whole event just joking around. I wouldn’t want to be up there with anyone else.”
Sturgill and Witte were the only team to score more than 60 points on all three of their optional dives in the final. They cut the lead to 4.02 points after three rounds when they earned 61.20 points on their front 2 ½ with one twist.
Hedberg and Tyler came through with 818.91 points on their two men’s 10-meter synchro lists to claim the national title in that event. Max Weinrich (Brookeville, Md./Johansen Diving Academy) and Dash Glasberg (Santa Monica, Calif./Johansen Diving Academy) were second with 672.66 points, and Grant Cates (Swayzee, Ind./RipFest) and Evan Stingley (Noblesville, Ind./RipFest) were third at 610.74.
“It feels great. I’m really happy with how we performed here and in Canada a few weeks ago. I’m feeling good about it,” Hedberg said.
Hedberg and Tyler scored more than 80 points on three dives in the final, including 86.58 on a front 4 ½ tuck and 86.40 points on a back 2 ½ with 2 ½ twists.
The USA Diving National Championships continue through Friday, May 16. Monday’s competition features men’s and women’s 1-meter preliminaries and finals. The championships will determine U.S. teams for several 2025 international events.
It’s interesting that the top 2 pairs have divers going to different colleges indicating that they likely don’t train together much. It makes their win all the more impressive!