"Diving is a lot of fun, and I like that I get to meet new people," said Baughman, a sophomore.
She trains year-round at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, six days a week for two and a half hours each day.
"It's definitely a commitment," she says.
Her favorite dive of the day was an inward one-half tuck, in which Baughman jumped off the board facing backward and twisted into a tight ball before straightening out to slice into the water.
In high school diving meets, each competitor performs 11 dives, which are judged based on the three stages of the dive — the approach, the execution and the entry. The five judges each post a score ranging from one to seven for each dive; the highest and lowest scores are tossed out to keep the scores consistent.
The remaining three scores are averaged to create one numerical score for each dive, then all 11 scores are added together to create one composite meet score for each diver.
La Cañada's Geyer scored highest out of the two boys with a 393.7 overall score. Liu trailed with a score of 319.85. Both boys qualified and will compete in the CIF meet in May.
Yuen of South Pasadena won in the girl's division with a score of 322.10. Baughman scored 306.30. The girls will also compete in the CIF meet as the qualifying score for both boys and girls is 300 points.
"I felt pretty confident going into it," said Geyer, who trains with a year-round USC diving team. "Diving is really fun once you get into it."
Geyer competed just last week in the USA Diving Spring National meet, where he placed 12th out of more than 100 divers — most of whom are at the college level.
"I'm planning on continuing in college," Geyer said.
The 2007 CIF Div. II diving preliminaries take place on May 8 at Westlake High School.
