The 2008 Gift-Giving Meet was super!  Seven diving teams from all over the state and  as far away as Maine competed in our annual Christmas competition.

We had SEVEN AAU NATIONAL QUALIFIERS (see results below) ~

BADWEST qualifiers were 12-13 Kim Yang (fighting a painful back injury) and 16-18 Ryan Shelley (fighting extreme popularity:)

NEAR NATIONALS MISSES~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
       

Inching up towards qualifying and having good meets were 16-18 BADWEST DIVERS Katie Vogel and Matt Flynn.  Lindsay Scuoteguazza, in her 14-15 age group is a few scores on each dive away also.  Audrey Strong and Katie Vogel chucked a couple of new dives and received some decent scores doing so...Good to see our 'out-of-retirement' Laura Nocka hasn't lost much of anything over the years...and is gearing up for her final high school season.

SYNCHRO CHAMPIONSHIPS established~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the newly-established NEW ENGLAND SYNCHRONIZED DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS, BADWEST had double winners:  Ryan Shelley and Matt Flynn won their 16-18 boys synchro event and Kim Yang and Lindsay Scuoteguazza won their 14-15 event.  BAD'S Kendall Macrae, fighting illness, & LilyBet MacRae won the 16-18 Girls event.

EIGHT FIRST PLACES FOR BADWEST~~~~~~~~~~

  BADWEST Divers placed 1st in eight of the 16 events (including synchro).  Before patting yourselves  on the back too heavily, let's put it in perspective -
a) We had 24 of the 60 divers in the meet-only Michelle Higgins & Amy Zuerndorfer did not dive (and a few others who may be on team soon).
b)  four of the eight 1st places were novice events, which do not score team points
c)  Many teams did not bring their entire complement of divers

NOVICE DIVERS~~~Most of you dove your last meet as a novice diver.. 2009 is next month - our target date for you guys to move beyond novice and into the big time!  Most of you have enough meet and practice experience to dive with the rest of New England age groupers...

Jessica Langway had a great meet, winning her age group and Marina Bevacqua put in her new reverse dive 301C, and won her event...Congrats also to Novice Champions Emma Jarczyk, Adam Siddiqui, & Cole Peterson.

Time to move up to Jr. Olympic diver category, do harder dives and compete with the regular Jr. Olympic divers and try to qualify for Nationals, win your age group or just improve your skills and score points not only for yourself but for your team.... ARE YOU UP TO THE CHALLENGE!!! (just say "yes":)  Onward and Upward!

FUN & GIFTS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
       

I think everyone had fun and everyone received a gift...if not, not to worry, it's called the gift-giving meet for a reason.  We hope you all gave a gift! :)  Those that didn't get a gift, see me.  We had a whole bag gifts that never got wrapped or set on the gift table!

Former State Champions-All Americans and National Collegiate Qualifiers- with their kids - Ally and Michelle White, formerly of Arlington...came by and visited old coach Jimbo :)
Christmas Gift-Giving Meet Results