RV's Lamon nails section diving title

River Valley High freshman Connor Lamon dove his way to a Sac-Joaquin Section championship on Saturday at Oakmont High in Roseville.

The 14-year-old Lamon posted a personal-best score of 371 to win the Section frosh-soph boys diving title.

"He did awesome for being only a freshman," Yuba City/River Valley diving coach Sharon Harris said, adding that's the first time she's had a diver win a Section title. "The best I've had someone do before is finish third or fourth."

Lamon performed 11 dives on Friday at the Sub-Section meet, winning with a score of 362.15. He beat the runner-up by 100 points.

Then Saturday at the Section finals, Lamon did 11 more dives, beating the second-place finisher by 21 points.

Included in his repertoire on Saturday was a back 11⁄2 somersault in the pike position. It was the first time he had performed the dive in competition and he scored 51⁄2s and 6s on it.

"Usually he does it in the tuck position," Harris said, but added Lamon went with the pike position in hopes of achieving a higher score and possibly earning All-American status.

To be All-American, Lamon needed to score at least 375.

Lamon said he tried doing the dive in practice on Friday, "but I smacked once," as he didn't come out of the pike position and landed on his back.

After that mishap, Lamon admitted he was a little scared to attempt the dive again, especially in competition on Saturday. But, he was going for the higher score.

"It has a higher degree of difficulty," Lamon said of the dive in the pike position, and he nailed it. "It was pretty exciting."

Lamon has been diving for three years, having gotten started after attending a diving clinic at Lake Tahoe, where his parents own a condo.

"I did it out of curiosity," Lamon said of the clinic, and he did so well, the coach at the clinic referred him to Dede Crayne, a diving coach in Sacramento who has a team that competes at the Junior Olympics level.

Lamon has been diving for Crayne ever since, even competing in one national Junior Olympics and several regional ones that are staged throughout the country.

"I did OK" at the national event, Lamon said, adding he finished in the middle of the 30-plus person field.

While Lamon competed at the frosh-soph level, the River Valley/Yuba City swim coach said Lamon would have done very well at the varsity level, had he competed there.

"We knew he was one of the better divers in this area," Larry Lammert said. "He travels and dives all over the country. We just didn't know how he'd do against the rest of the competition in the Section. Now we know."

Contact sports reporter Richard Myers at 749-4714 or rmyers@appeal-democrat.com