| Carbon divers Nathan Hepworth, Brett Wells, Kent Olson, James Macheinski, Nick Torres, Travis Hobbs and Travis Hepworth prepare for competition. |
On Feb. 1 the 3A high school diving championship meet was conducted at BYU. After taking first at the region meet, the boys participated against divers from all over the state.
Medals are awarded for the top six divers in the meet and two Carbon boys finished in medal positions. Travis Hobbs took first in the state. He is only a junior this year, but he crushed the competition by over 29 points over his nearest competitor. It might have been better, but he and Coach Foster made a last minute change in one of his dives and he didn’t hit it as cleanly as he could have. His overall performance showed both consistency and a high degree of difficulty making him the top diver in the state.
Also taking home a medal was Brett Wells with a fourth place finish. This was a great achievement for the first year diver. He hit some dives that had a high degree of difficulty for the first year participant. Another first year competitor, Travis Hepworth, just missed taking home a medal. He was just 12 points out of sixth place.
Kent Olsen went into the competition seeded eighth, but dropped to 14th after having trouble with his consistency. He did hit some good dives on the night though. Ninth grader, Nick Torres finished in 15th place with James Macheinski on his heels in 16th. Coach Foster was a bit surprised that both made it into the finals and placed as high as they did.
Nathan Hepworth ended up qualifying to go to the state meet, but was not able to get into the finals. Travis Hepworth and Torres achieved their best scores of the year at the state meet.
As a team, Carbon’s score was more than double the next highest team, Highland. This is going to be a team to be reconed with for a while. They will only lose one to graduation next year. Coach Foster summed up this season, “The boys were great to work with. They worked hard and tried to do what you ask them. Two of the team, the Hepworth boys come to us from East Carbon every day. They are also on high honors on their grades so I don’t have to worry about their eligibility.”