PREP PREVIEW 1993: Girls’ Swimming : Diving Squad Springs Capistrano Valley to Prominent Heights

MISSION VIEJO —  Here’s a relatively painless training tip for Capistrano Valley as the girls’ swimming and diving team prepares for this season: Make the divers feel appreciated.

Capistrano Valley Coach Bob Skelley’s swim team would be well served by a few additions to its curriculum this year. Say, organize “Hug a Diver Day,” or maybe a field trip to a diving meet.

It’s an idea whose time has come.

After all, it’s by the grace of the Capistrano Valley divers that the Cougars have been able to fare so well in Southern Section swimming and diving championships going back to 1987, when Capistrano Valley won the first of three consecutive 4-A team championships.

“Going back seven years, diving has always helped,” said Skelley, in his fourth year with the program. “Capo Valley has had some very strong divers.”

In 1990, with 32 points contributed by the divers--the four entrants finished second, fourth, fifth and sixth--and 34 by the swimmers, the Cougars placed eighth in the division. A year later, in what Skelley said was a down year but only for the swimmers, Capistrano Valley finished 11th in the section meet without one swimmer qualifying.

That was the year Joy Burkholder won the first of two 4-A individual diving championships. Burkholder, now at Michigan, had a strong supporting cast in 1991. Darcy Stuart, Jennie Maxwell and Shannon Brown finished fifth, fourth and sixth.

Last year, Burkholder defended her title and Summer Brown, Shannon’s sister, finished second. Stuart was third and freshman Cassie Day, who beat out Maxwell for the Cougars’ fourth qualifying spot, took fifth.

After the diving segment of the 1992 section championships, Capistrano Valley was first. When the swimmers left the water, Ventura Buena had edged the Cougars by four points in the closest swimming and diving sectional competition since 1984.

“Diving has always been good, it’s the swimming that has been up and down,” Skelley said. “The divers wonder why the swimmers don’t help them more. When they lost by four, they probably thought, ‘Well, if the swimmers had just held up their end. . . . ‘ “

Not that the lives of these divers revolve around their high school accomplishments. Prep diving is a tiny part of the competitive experience for the 1993 diving corps of Stuart, Summer Brown, Day, Maxwell and freshman Shannon Pace.

All but Maxwell, who dives for the Crown Valley Dive team, compete under two-time Olympian Janet Ely-Lagourgue, head diving coach of the Mission Viejo Nadadores. Pace is the only Capistrano Valley diver not on the junior national team.

In 1990, Summer Brown won the Junior Olympic National one-meter springboard championship. She was runner-up in the three-meter event at the same meet a year later. Stuart is one of the most highly recruited seniors in the nation.

With credentials like these, why even bother with high school diving?

“It’s a lot less serious,” Stuart said. “You go into it with almost a comical, laid-back attitude. It’s almost like a practice meet, and it’s fun because we dive a lot better.”

Ely-Lagourgue agreed: “Some top divers have their best performances in high school meets. It’s more of a fun atmosphere, the perspective is different. . . . They’re more able to execute at high school meets because they’re not sidetracked by anxiety.”

High school meets also provide the opportunity to attempt riskier dives and to boost confidence.

“You can experiment, try different things, and the judges aren’t that hard,” Stuart said. “In a (Junior Olympic) meet you might get a 5 or a 6 for a dive, whereas at high school you’re scored a 7, 8 or 9. You laugh because you know the dive wasn’t that good, but it’s nice to see a great score.”

Yet for all they’ve done, some divers say their visibility is low--diving and swim meets are usually held on different days--and team spirit could be better. Most Capistrano Valley divers could eat lunch next to a Cougar swimmer and never know it.

“I know one swimmer, and that’s because we have a few classes together,” Stuart said.

And divers don’t always get the recognition some of them believe they deserve.

“We kind of get mushed in with swimming and ignored,” Stuart said. “A lot of people don’t even know we exist. If we were separate, we’d win CIF (Southern Section) and get more recognition.”

Capistrano Valley benefits from its strong diving crop, but there are equally strong swimming schools that suffer from weak diving programs.

“El Toro and Mission Viejo probably don’t like it because they don’t have real strong diving,” Skelley said. “And some of my swimmers don’t understand why, what they think is gymnastics, is considered swimming.”

But unless the rules change, swimmers and divers must accept the union.

“Look at the title, it’s swimming and diving,” Skelley said. “Until they decide to change it, that’s what it is and those are the rules we have to live by.”

Rules that have historically helped Capistrano Valley.

Girls’ Swimming at a Glance

Top swimmers: Div. I--Jennifer Blasi, Villa Park, Sr.; Ami Bodas, Irvine, Sr.; Cathy Carone, Capistrano Valley, So.; Amy Clark, Brea-Olinda, Jr.; Sheri Christiansen, Esperanza; Lauren Davis, Fountain Valley, Jr.; Amy De Bolt, Los Alamitos, Jr.; Colleen Donald, El Modena, Jr.; Jamie Gaskins, Foothill, Sr.; Barbara Hajduczek, Katella, Jr.; Michelle Herron, Los Alamitos, Sr.; Lisa Hess, Canyon, Jr.; Kella Hoblick, El Dorado, So.; Michelle Kagy, Edison, Jr.; Robyn Kracik, Brea-Olinda, Jr.; Missy Kuser, Mission Viejo, Soph.; Linda Levitan, Marina, Sr.; Caroline Lewczck, Troy, Sr.; Victoria Livingston, Sonora, So.; Allison Mijares, Marina, Jr.; Cheryl Murphy, Mission Viejo, So.; Michelle Perry, El Toro, Sr.; Catherine Pharris, Villa Park, Sr.; Jeannine Pouey, Capistrano Valley, So.; Rori Rangel, Valencia, So.; Heather Riggs, Fountain Valley, Sr.; Christa Thomas, Edison, Sr.; Sachi White, Brea-Olinda, Jr. Div. II--Rachel Arrow, Newport Harbor, So.; Melanie Chiang, Mater Dei, Jr.; Jennifer Connellan, Santa Margarita, So.; Chantel Dreis, Laguna Hills, Sr.; Helena Flack, University, Jr.; Giana Johnson, Laguna Hills, So.; Jaimee Lindstrom, Woodbridge, So.; Brooke Martin, Santa Margarita, So.; Jennifer McLeod, Trabuco Hills, Sr.; Dana Nakaya, Woodbridge, Jr.; Michelle Pereira, Mater Dei, Jr.; Susie Ruhland, Trabuco Hills, Jr. Div. III--Wendy Martin, Kennedy, Jr.; June Mutra-Is, Kennedy, Sr.; Julie Nathon, La Quinta, Sr.; Elena Weiss, Pacifica, So.; Carin Whittington, La Quinta, Sr.; Ali Ladeda, Capistrano Valley Christian, Sr.

Top divers: Div. I--Summer Brown, Capistrano Valley, So.; Arika Early, Mission Viejo, So.; Dara Jones, Fountain Valley, Sr.; Nicole Randall, Fountain Valley. Sr; Marleny Rivera, Edison, Jr.; Amy Sloan, El Toro, So.; Darcy Stuart, Capistrano Valley, So.; Becky Wilshire, El Toro, Jr. Div. II--Wendy Chase, Santa Margarita, So.; Caroline Kelley, Santa Margarita, So.; Erin McGinty, Santa Margarita, So.; Jennifer Ziskin, Laguna Hills, So.; Sandy Zubrin, Corona del Mar, So.

League favorites: Century: Villa Park; Empire: El Dorado; Freeway: Sonora; Garden Grove: La Quinta; Pacific Coast: Trabuco Hills; Orange: Brea-Olinda; Sea View: Corona del Mar; South Coast: Capistrano Valley; Sunset: Fountain Valley.

Key dates: March 6--Long Beach Millikan relays; April 24--Foothill Swim Games and Mission Viejo Invitational; May 12--Div. I diving final; May 13--Div. II diving final, Divs. I and II swimming prelims; May 14--Div. III diving final, Div. I swimming final, Div. III swimming prelims; May 15--Divs. II and III swimming finals.

Notes: Div. I--On the top teams segment of a preseason questionnaire, one swim coach wrote, “Mission will be forever.” Granted, Mission Viejo should never be overlooked, but Marina Coach Dave Pickford said, “The top three through 10 teams have gotten stronger, there’s a real balance now. It’s not that Mission has gotten worse, everyone else is beginning to catch up.” The South Coast and Sunset leagues are true talent pools, and winning a league title will be as challenging as a Southern Section crown. The jump to the competitive Division I hurts Brea-Olinda, but the two-time defending 3-A section champion and winner of 11 consecutive Orange League titles has impressive swimmers. Div. II--Watch for an interesting race among Corona del Mar, Irvine, Newport Harbor and Woodbridge in the wide-open Sea View League. Trabuco Hills should rumble with Laguna Hills in the Pacific Coast League. Div. III--Garden Grove League champion La Quinta will run into stiff competition from Kennedy, but the Aztecs have five or six swimmers who are expected to qualify for the section meet.