The Bainbridge Island Diving Club sent two divers to Midland, Texas to compete in the USA Diving Junior Olympic 2019 Zone F Championships Nationals’ pre-qualification meet.

There were more than 230 divers covering age groups from 8 to 18 years old from Southern California, Arizona, Indiana, New Mexico, and Texas at the meet, held on June 21-23.

Bainbridge’s Brian Taylor placed 18th on the 3-meter springboard with a score of 364.70 over 11 dives and placed 18th again on the 1-meter springboard with a score of 359.95 over 11 dives.

When asked how he felt about his performance, he said, “I’m getting the same judges scores as the kids who are qualifying for Nationals, I just need bigger dives with higher D.D. (degree of difficulty). I think I can make it next year”.

Kiernan Liberman qualified for the USA Diving National Championships in two events.

He squeaked in at 10th place with a score of 432.26 on the 3-meter springboard and came in a comfortable eighth place on 1-meter springboard with a score of 431.75. The top 10 divers go to Nationals.

Liberman is also second in line as an alternate for the platform diving event where he placed ninth with a score of 354.35 over 10 dives; the top seven finishers go on to Nationals.

“I’m very proud of these boys for what they accomplished here these past few days,” said Bainbridge Island Diving Coach Chris Miller.

“They have had to train through adverse conditions while the Don Nakata pool and diving tank were closed for emergency repairs during the three weeks leading up to this event. Their diligent meet management made the difference,” he said.

The 2019 USA Diving Junior Olympic National Championships are scheduled to take place in Knoxville, Tennessee from July 30 through Aug. 6.