Now that Amanda Crocker has competed in six straight All-Star diving meets, she counts as a regular. This was her seventh summer diving with Country Glen, and at the All-Star meet last Thursday, she saw plenty of familiar faces.
"Now everybody knows each other," said Crocker, a rising Holy Child freshman. "It's just fun to compete." When she finished competing in the 13-14 girls championships, she stuck around Glenwood to watch the main event — the 15-18 girls meet.
More than 150 of the Montgomery County Diving League's top competitors convened at the two-day All-Star meet, held at Old Farm in Rockville for the younger age groups on Wednesday, July 26; and at Glenwood in Silver Spring the next day.
Montgomery County Diving League already has alumni who are diving on the top collegiate level, including Potomac divers like UCLA senior Amanda Blong, Princeton senior Michelle DeMond and incoming USC freshman Alexis DeMond.
Karl Borst expect they’ll have company for years to come. Not only do record-setting divers keep advancing through the league’s age ranks, but they’re getting better earlier in life. On Wednesday, Borst, the league president and a Manor Woods parent, saw an 8-and-under diver execute a one-and-a-half.
“The 8-and-unders have improved to the level that the 9-10s used to be a couple of years ago," Borst said. "We’re going to see a class of divers that are going to shatter every record that exists right now.”
Part of the reason is that the league opened up the repertoire that the league’s youngest divers can do in a competition.
On the first day of All-Stars, the league honored parents Carolyn Carne of Seven Locks and Lori Puente of Tanterra for their years of dedication to the league.
Carne first got involved when her son Tim, then 5, joined some neighbors as a guest in a diving lesson. Now 12, Tim continues diving, and competed in the All-Star meet. “The coaches have been great to encourage the kids,” Carolyn Carne said. They introduce children to new dives incrementally.
Some of the league mainstays, like Timothy Faerber of East Gate and Meg Hostage of Potomac Woods, missed the All-Star meet because they were competing in the Junior National Diving Championships in Indianapolis last week.
Timothy Faerber's absence didn't ruin the event for East Gate, which had first-place divers in the two youngest girls age groups. Elaina Faerber won the 8-and-under competition, and Kali Becker took first place in the girls 9-10 finals.