Punahou pair wins league honors
By Kalani Takase
Advertiser Staff Writer
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Punahou School made it a clean sweep at yesterday's Interscholastic League of Honolulu one-meter diving championships.
Junior Katherine Chinn captured the girls' title by tallying 421.40 points and sophomore Spencer Madanay won the boys' crown uncontested with 421.60 points at the Buffanblu's Waterhouse Pool.
Five judges score each dive, with the lowest and highest scores thrown out. The other three scores are then multiplied by the degree of difficulty to find the total score for the dive. The divers completed 11 dives.
Chinn was the best among the seven girls, continuing her year-long dominance. She has won every ILH meet this season.
"I just wanted to put together a good meet for myself," Chinn said. "All of the girls are doing well this year, so I just wanted to do the best job that I could do."
Punahou co-head coach Micah Ewing said Chinn finished with her toughest dive.
"That was her front, two-and-a-half tuck, which is a very difficult dive � not many girls do it," Ewing said.
Chinn said she felt comfortable with the relatively-new dive.
"I do whatever I'm comfortable with," she said. "If I'm confident with a dive, then I'll try it, but if not, then I won't."
Chinn noted the importance of being consistent.
"Consistency is everything. You can lose if you aren't consistent," Chinn said. "We count all 11 dives, so if you mess up on one dive you can climb back up, but you won't win � it's very unlikely."
St. Andrew's Maria Zarka finished second with 394.50 points and Ashley Maginot, of Island Pacific, was third with 342.30 points.
Madanay also tried out a couple of new dives.
"Spencer just learned his front, two-and-a-half pike, and he's getting better and better at it and the reverse, one-and-a-half pike is also new," Ewing said.
"I'm happy that I won," Madanay said. "I think I could have done better, but I gave it my all."
Madanay said he tries not to overthink his dives.
"I just try to focus on the dive that is next," he said. "If I do bad on a dive, I try to let it go and focus on the next one."
Chinn and Madanay said it was nice to win together.
"Oh yeah," Madanay said. "We've been through a lot together."
Chinn added: "It's really nice, because we're really close, so it's a good feeling.
The Hawai'i High School Athletic Association/Local Motion Swimming and Diving State Championships will be held Feb. 12 and 13 at Kamehameha-Hawai'i.
ILH DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Yesterday
At Waterhouse Pool, Punahou School
Finals results
Boys: 1, Spencer Madanay, Punahou, 421.60 points.
Girls: 1, Katherine Chinn, Punahou, 421.40 points. 2, Maria Zarka, St. Andrew's, 394.50. 3, Ashley Maginot, Island Pacific, 342.30. 4, Cristin Lim, 'Iolani, 311.40. 5, Allia Alliata, La Pietra, 288.00. 6, Jennifer Kumura, 'Iolani, 265.95. 7, Juliet Salcedo, Kamehameha, 169.35.