The Swimming Scene: Nassau Diving Championships Roundup

Peter Magliuglo took first in the Nassau Diving Championships last night at the Aquatic Center with a score of 429, also punching his ticket to the state meet. The state qualifying mark for diving is 396. The sophomore from Manhasset had a regular season high of 271.57, good for first place in the county.

"He was much, much better than he was at the division championships and my take on it was that he was just more relaxed," coach Matt McGrane said. "He was smiling a lot more and was more at ease; his first two dives he scored 79 points. He got into a roll, he warmed up well, he was loose, hit his first couple of dives and was building his confidence through there."

Nicholas Smith, a senior at Long Beach, scored an agonizingly close 395.05, missing the state cut by just 0.95 points. Smith missed out last year as well, taking second place with a 385.15. It looked like he would have a fairly clear path to the top spot this season after last year’s No. 1 diver graduated. But then the sophomore, Magliuglo, proved again why he belongs in the conversation with all the other top young talent in Nassau.

"Smith definitely performed very well, and I think all the divers felt for him...when you come that close and fall a bit short," McGrane said. "I was impressed with his general demeanor throughout the entire competition because he was a senior, he was the guy coming in from last year with the experience, but his interaction with all the other divers and with Pete was great. He certainly congratulated Peter at the end and just displayed good sporting behavior."

Last year Magliuglo posted a high of 173.92, finishing 12^th in the regular season. He’s jumped nearly 100 points in the course of a year and all the way to the top of the list.

Magliuglo took 17^th in diving at the 2009 County Championships, posting a 234.2. Once again, he’s jumped all the way to the top of the list, this time by scoring nearly 200 points over his 2009 mark.

"Remarkable, really remarkable," McGrane said of Magliuglo's transformation over the past year. "He’s one of those kids. He’s one of those rare high school students, self motivated and extremely disciplined."

Close Calls: Jordan Bernstein (Jericho) came in third with a 388.5 and Kaleim Reid (Uniondale) took fourth with a 375.

Click here for all the results, courtesy of the Section 8 Swimming website, which is an absolutely great resource.