Walls, Reed Win Diving Championships : Girls’ Meet Tight, Boys’ a Rout; Totals Second Best in Section History

Kristen Walls of Monte Vista High School has established herself as one of the top high school divers in California thorough her competition in Junior Olympic events.

Friday, at the San Diego Section diving championships at Helix High, Walls discovered some top competition right here in San Diego.

Walls, a junior, won the event with 428.40 points, but Point Loma’s Erin Hoese stayed right at the top until she missed on her second-to-last dive.

Walls’ point total was the second-highest in section history, behind three-time champion Eileen Maul of Santana, who had 436.95 last year. Maul, a senior, opted to compete only in gymnastics this season and did not to defend her title. She did show up at Helix in time to hear Walls announced as her successor.

In the boys’ competition, Santana senior Tom Reed successfully defended his title going away. Reed, who will dive at USC next season, had 440.15 points, also second-best in section history to Greg Louganis of Valhalla, who totaled 566.76 in 1977.

Walls and Hoese, both of whom compete for Dive San Diego, a Junior Olympic training organization, were tied with 186 points after the field of 31 was pared to 16. With two dives remaining, Hoese held a slim 328.10-328.05 lead. That’s when Walls took over for good with 55.20 points on a difficult inward 1 1/2 pike.

“I was scared about it,” Walls said. “I haven’t been doing that well with it.”

She said that two weeks before the section finals a year ago, she slipped while attempting the same dive and suffered a cut that required stitches, and that memory was with her when she approached the board.

The pressure was then on Hoese, also a junior, who attempted a front 2 1/2 somersault. She got exceptional lift off the board, and her rotation in the air was smooth and without flaw, but as she approached the water, she flipped too far over. She came out of the water in tears, knowing she would not win.

“I knew I could hit that dive, it was a real letdown for me,” Hoese said. “As soon as I hit the water, I knew it was over.”

Still, it wasn’t a dive Hoese felt she was taking a chance with.

“It has always been a solid dive with a high (degree of difficulty),” she said. “I usually do it well. That’s usually one of my solid dives. I did it in warmups and did it well. I knew I had to hit it if I had any chances.”

Reed held a 194.85-185.20 lead over Mt. Carmel’s Mark Dunn after the field of 28 was cut to 17 after five dives. Reed then showed why he would be champion.

His final six dives were nearly flawless. He increased his lead by nearly 22 points over the three semifinal dives and continued to get better, scoring 118.70 over his final three.

“This is probably one of the better meets I’ve ever had,” Reed said. “I was concentrating harder because this was a big meet.”

Reed finished fourth in the section as a sophomore and hasn’t been defeated in San Diego High School competition since.

Dunn, a junior who finished with 382.65 points, wasn’t as disappointed about losing to Reed as he was about missing another goal.

“I wanted to qualify for All-American,” said Dunn, who needed 410 points to attain that honor. “I know I could have done a lot better with my last three dives. I really didn’t care if I beat Tom. Tom was diving his own meet.”