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Cuesta Aquatics Opens the Post-Season with Diving at Long Beach

Cuesta Aquatics Opens the Post-Season with Diving at Long Beach
Posted: Apr 06, 2025

Cuesta Aquatics is set to send 10 divers to the 2025 Regional/Conference Diving Meet in Long Beach this Friday and Saturday. All the teams in the Southern California Regional shall send their divers to the regional meet in Long Beach this Friday and Saturday.  This is a special concession for diving, so they can be scored together by the same judges to determine the CCCAA's State Qualifiers. It is similar to the separate qualifying meet for Decathletes and Heptathletes in Track & Field, which eliminates crossover events for the competitors.

Cuesta Diving Coach Coral Minton, who has mentored over 70 all-Americans for the Cougars, has assisted Cuesta Men's Coach Greg Enloe and Women's Coach Rachel (Gruetzmacher) Shiffrar this season and shall join their eight men and two women competitors at the meet. 

The men's team shall be led by Joseph Tugwell on the low-board and Lloyd Esola off the 3-meter plank.  Tugwell, who a year ago was prepping for the Regional Decathlon Meet for Track & Field, has been the Cougars' top performer off the 1-meter, with a team-high score of 209.25 points off six dives, while Lloyd Esola posted a team-best 158.35 off the three-meter.  Both divers, plus Luke Paley, should qualify for State, but they will have plenty of competition in Long Beach.  Each diving event counts for one of a competitor's maximum three individual events in the 2025 Western State Conference Championships.  The men's team is also sending Noah Haushalter, Jack Merickel, Scott Ragain, Taylor Ford and Carson Waldram.  Esola and Waldram both competed in the meet last year, with Esola earning all-WSC honors by taking 4th off both boards and Waldram adding 11 points for the team with 8th place off the low board.  Esola also qualified for the 2024 CCCAA State Swim & Dive Championships and placed 13th off the 1-meter. 

The women are sending two divers, Elyse Smith and Kelly Churchill.  Both divers will compete on both boards and are threats to both qualify for the State Meet and score big points on each apparatus.   The duo has not competed off the planks since March 22, when Smith finished 6th off both boards at the NorCal Invitational.  Churchill did not dive in Santa Rosa but posted a pair of bronze finishes at the WSC Meet in Santa Monica a week earlier.