PURCHASE
Scarsdale junior Evan Moretti had one of the hardest 11-dive programs out of the 22-diver field at Tuesday’s Section 1 championships.
He took advantage of the program’s degree of difficulty and won his first Section 1 diving title at Purchase College with a score of 485.7.
“It feels great because I’ve never won a Section 1 title before,” Moretti said. “It was a really close match because there were so many close competitors. I ended up doing really well. I actually thought I was going to come in second after the show Alec DeCaprio put on in the last three rounds. I was so happy when I figured out I won.”
Moretti performed two dives with a 3.0 degree of difficulty (out of 4.0).
“Last year, I had a relatively low degree of difficulty,” Moretti said. “Over the summer I was able to train at Fordham University and I was able to get the strength to do those dives — the back two and half and the reverse two and a half. They were the most important reasons behind my success.”
His first of two 3.0 dives came in the fifth round where he scored between a 5.5 and a 7.0, executing the back two and a half somersault in the tuck position. His other came in the seventh round, a reverse two and a half somersault in the tuck position.
“The fact that I could do those dives was amazing in itself,” Moretti said. “I was having so much trouble with them until this meet. I had a great run with both of them.”
To qualify for the state and Federation championships, which will be held at Webster High School beginning Feb. 28, the divers needed to hit an 11-dive score of at least 420.35.
Joining Moretti on the state team are Ossining freshman DeCaprio (468.85), Bronxville senior John Paul Flangos (460.95), and Clarkstown senior Ryan O’Connell (434.35).
The Section 1 Swimming Championships begin Wednesday afternoon at 5 p.m. at Felix Festa Middle School with the individual event and relay preliminaries. The finals are scheduled for Thursday, also at Felix Festa.
The points the top 20 divers received will be added to the team score at the conclusion of the 50-yard freestyle finals.
Twitter: @Lohud_Debbie
