Extra Work Pays; Brennan Wins a Title

Last fall, Lee Brennan made a tough decision that finally paid dividends on Friday.

A three-sport standout at Aliso Niguel, Brennan continued private diving workouts while he competed on the Wolverine football and wrestling teams.

It wasn’t easy, but apparently was the right choice. Brennan won the Southern Section Division II diving title, setting a scoring record of 565.05 points at Heritage Park in Irvine.

Brennan took control after receiving high marks on his fifth dive. He held a commanding 46-point lead after eight dives and was able to take a conservative approach to his last three dives.

“I’m a senior and I had never won before,” Brennan said. “I didn’t try to worry about the other divers. I just concentrated on what I had to do.”

A fullback on the football team and a fourth-place finisher at 160 pounds in the section wrestling finals, Brennan had little trouble beating freshman Louie Gagnet of University and defending champion Robbie Quinn, a sophomore from Laguna Hills.

Quinn held the division scoring record (556.80), which he set last year. But the best he could do Friday was 512.10, about 11 points behind Gagnet, a teammate at Heritage Park-based L’Equipe Diving Club.

Coach Curt Wilson of Crown Valley Divers said that Brennan was in better shape to compete this year.

“Last season, he took the entire five months off while he played football and wrestled,” Wilson said. “So, when he came back out for diving it took him a long time to get back into diving shape. That hurt.”

Brennan, who recently signed to dive at Arizona State, said he learned his lesson, no matter how difficult it was to train for two sports at once. In late April, he won his age-group championship at the Western Junior Olympics Winter Nationals in Washington. In 1997, he failed to place at the same event, but finished second at the Southern Section meet. An ankle injury prevented him from diving as a sophomore.

Orange County divers swept the top five positions. Robert Spach of Aliso Niguel fell out of medal contention midway through the first round, but he was strong in the end, scoring well enough to finish fourth and hold off a strong challenge from Laguna Hills’ Grant Mendiola.

While Brennan held a comfortable lead, the battle for second place between Quinn and Gagnet heated up. The two swapped places several times. Going into the final dive, Quinn led by 1.40 points. Gagnet, however, saved a more difficult dive for last. He got high marks after landing a forward 1 1/2 somersault with three twists from the three-meter springboard, hitting the water with little splash.

Quinn followed and drew so-so marks for a reverse 1 1/2 with a 1 1/2 twist off the one-meter board.

“You try to do the hardest dive you can at the end,” Quinn said.

In the girls’ competition, Emmely Tanaka of Laguna Hills, one of four county competitors in the 17-person field, dived well, but couldn’t overcome the early lead of champion Kasey Reinhard of La Crescenta Crescenta Valley, who set a meet record with 493.95 points. Tanaka finished third, fourth-tenths of a point behind Anne Osmun of Palos Verdes Peninsula.