RIVERSIDE – If Cristian Herrera, Chrysoula Gatsios and Ellen Wang keep improving at the rate they showed Monday, next season’s CIF-Southern Section diving championships could be spectacular for the Troy divers.
As it was, Monday was still impressive.
All three divers cracked the top six in Division 2 to improve their finishes from a year ago and help highlight efforts by county divers at Riverside City College.
In Division 4, Garrett Brown of Ocean View placed second in a five-boy final with a score of 259.75.
Herrera placed third in the 29-boy competition, scoring 421.00 points to round out a top three with repeat champion Ryan Russi of Vista Murrieta (542.45) and Blake Griffith of San Luis Obispo (493.95).
Herrera, a sophomore, finished fourth last season.
“I hope to get, maybe, second or first next year,” said Herrera, a year-round diver with the El Monte-based Arrow Diving. “I’ve been practicing a whole lot more and I plan on practicing even more in the summer.”
The two-time Freeway League champion sealed his position by saving his best for last. Herrera capped his 11-dive list by scoring a 9.0 and an 8.0 on an inward 2½-somersaults tuck on the 3-meter springboard, an optional dive.
“It’s fine to have a great start but a great finish is much better,” Herrera said. “The inward 2 1/2 is my favorite optional.”
Gatsios, a junior from Pacific Diving club, and Wang, a sophomore from the Arrow club, finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in a 21-girl Division 2 meet captured by Alhambra’s Briana Thai (542.55).
Gatsios, the girls Freeway League champion, scored 377.15 points while improving on a seventh-place finish last season. Wang racked up 353.45 points to climb three spots from her freshman season.
“It just feels good to be able to move up … it’s reassurance that we’re doing the right thing,” Gatsios said. “The competition was really good.”
This year’s competition also required divers to have a certain degree of difficulty for their optional dives.
“It was good to just see where we are compared to really good divers,” Wang said. “It just feels like all my hard work through the year paid off.”
Contact the writer: dalbano@ocregister.com
