By SAMANTHA BUTTERFIELD
Staff Writer
On May 4th and 5th El Diamante, along with other VUSD schools including Redwood, Golden West, and Mt. Whitney went to Clovis West for the Diving Valley Championships. Eld took 4 girls: Kenzie Ruiz, Samantha Butterfield, Madison Butterfield, and Morgan Looper. They also took a guy who is a first-year diver named Jaden Castillo.
The girls went first on May 4th and saw some amazing competition. During a dive meet, divers compete in 11 dives that are voluntary and optional. Since there were so many girls in both Division 1 and 2 there were cuts throughout the competition. Cuts were made after 5 dives, then after 8, and those who made it after that got to compete in all of their dives.
Kenzie and Samantha went against some tough competition, did their best, and made it through all the cuts. After the girls’ competition, Kenzie Ruiz took 8th place and Samantha Butterfield took 9th place in Division 2. Morgan Looper and Madison Butterfield, both freshmen, came into dive and had a great start! We are so happy for them for gaining this experience so early on and we can’t wait to see what they do in the future.
Jaden Castillo, also a freshman, came into diving with a little previous experience. He absolutely crushed it this season and at Valley. There was some awesome competition to watch. However, this did not make Jaden nervous. Instead, he actually had a personal record at Clovis West with a score of 399.6. He came home with a 1st place medal from Division 2. He also beat 2nd place by over 70 points.
Thank you to everyone who supported El Diamante High School at Valley including the swim team, and all the other local dive teams. So cheers to a great season and goodbye to the 2022 dive season!