Nationals!

We had a big weekend at AAU Diving Nationals this weekend.  There were kids there from all over the country, and we definitely learned a lot!  

Kyle and I went up on Friday morning and he warmed up on 1-meter early afternoon and 3-meter late afternoon.  I told him it was important to rest Friday evening and he had no problem in that department. 

Granny Sherry and Jason joined us Friday night and we started bright and early on Saturday morning.  Here's how diving opening ceremonies/National Anthem looks. 

Kyle dove 1-meter on Saturday.  Prelims (5 dives) started at 8:30.  Here he is right after diving in his first Nationals.

Finals were later that day, and he did his hardest 2 dives (1 1/2 and a reverse dive) which is then added to his first 3 dives score from prelims. 

Here are the dives he did.  This is from warm-ups because I am too nervous to video during competition.

AAU boys 10 year old silver medalist! 

The sunglasses were part of his winnings

 He wanted to go to the River Walk to celebrate, but it was so crowded we couldn't even find a parking spot.  He settled for Joe's Crab Shack instead...the menu was perfect for a diving champion.

Jason and Little Jason.

We had big hopes for 3-meter since Kyle has won at his last 3 meets.

After the first dive he was in 1st place, but then it was downhill from there.  He didn't dive the way he wanted to in prelims, but Kyle was able to regroup before the finals.  We reevaluated what his goals would be and decided that he should try to score at least a 20 on both his final dives.  He scored at 21.5 and a 22, and was all smiles.  

Here he is doing his reverse dive during finals.  (Another mom videoed and sent it to me.)  Not the best one he's ever done, but still good .

 

It was an amazing learning experience, and we couldn't be more proud of our little diver performing so well at the National Championships in only his 6th meet ever!