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Monden Returns from Triumphant Mainland Tour of Junior Circuit -- FINALLY!
Tropic Lightning founding diver Aleia Monden has only spent about three weeks at home this whole summer! Due to her unprecedented level of success this season, she continued to qualify for higher and higher levels of competition.
Just after school ended, she headed to Indiana on June 11 for her annual camp experience at IU. Because IU was hosting one of the ten United States Diving Region Championships June 24-26, and these dates marked the end of her camp, she stayed in Indiana to try to earn the right to compete in the East Championships. After blowing her final dive on three meter and NOT qualifying, she came back on one meter and placed 6th, earning the right to move on in that event. She also finished 5th in the platform event.
After that, it was home for a about 9 days, during which she trained twice a day and re-learned her platform list. She also competed in the Aloha State Games, earning two golds and a silver while showing the Hawaii diving community the skills she has learned over the last year.
Then, on Tuesday, July 12, it was off to Washington DC for the East Championships -- she had to go East and not West because she had attended a Region meet in the East. After competing on one meter and flailing helplessly to a 29th place finish, she came back and took the 11th of 12 national qualifying spots in the platform event, and earned her first trip to the US Junior Nationals!!! YAY :)
A quick trip home for three days helped her get ready for the Senior National Preliminary meet (this is the first season Aleia has met the difficulty requirement to compete at the Senior level). Major highlight was finishing 7th in her debut one meter event -- it seems that qualifying for Nationals (finally) unleashed some confidence in her own abilities. She beat seven other divers who qualified for the Junior Nationals as well! She also took he opportunity to learn two new dives on platform.
From Los Angeles, Monden traveled to Largo, FL, for the first AAU Nationals in 25 years. Competition started July 26 and ended July 31. Continuing on her upward trend, she won her first National Title on the second day of competition, by defeating 59 other girls in the one meter event. Completely dominating from start to finish, she won the prelims by 16 points and the final by 21 (and outscored her miserable East Champ's performance by 49 points with one less dive)! Aleia also finished 4th on platform and 9th on 3M to be the top-scoring individual diver in the 16-18 Girls' events.
It was wonderful for Hawaii to have such a role in this historic re-inauguration of the AAU Nationals. And, not only did the win come on coach Jeff's 39th birthday, giving him a fantastic present, it also gave Aleia an extra little something special too -- deciding what Jeff's hair would look like at the US Junior Nationals:
At the Junior Nationals August 2-6, it was all icing on the cake. Aleia was set to perform two new dives -- a back 2 1/2 somersault and a reverse 2 1/2 somersault from the 7.5 meter platform. Even if she finished last in this event, it is such a high level to have achieved, that she could still rest easy knowing she was one of the top 24 divers in the country. However, she defeated three of her fellow East competitors and one from the West, and finished as the 20th best in the US!
Finally, on August 6th, she headed home, where she will be resting up and trying to rejuvenate before starting school and training for next season.
BRANDON JOHNSON DEBUTS 10TH ON ONE METER AT REGION 9 CHAMPIONSHIPS
Brandon Johnson, known to friends as "BJ," traveled to the mainland for his first-ever United States Diving competition, the Region 9 Championships. This meet brought together divers from Hawaii, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado in addition to some visitors from out of the area (Florida, Ohio). BJ did a fabulous job on the one meter, where he finished 10th place, only 2 spots and 6 points from qualifying for the West Championships. This is especially promising, as he just turned 12 in May, and has one more year in his age division, so next year he'll more than likely be a shoo-in!
BJ also competed on the three meter, having learned four new dives in three days to be eligible for the event. Although he wasn't close to qualifying for the next level, he did a solid job throwing the new dives and gaining valuable experiences.
And next year, we plan to have a much larger contingent of divers going to this meet, so he won't be so lonely as the single representative of Tropic Lightning at the Region 9 Meet.