Harborfields' Alex Zhang wins second straight Suffolk diving championship
Huntington/Harborfields' Alex Zhang left no doubt about it, compiling 524.05 points to win Suffolk diving championship. Credit: Bob Sorensen
The pressure was off Alex Zhang as he entered the Suffolk diving championship Thursday at Hauppauge.
The Harborfields’ sophomore had already qualified for the state tournament at the first invitational of the season on January 11. But that didn’t stop him from going out and having another outstanding performance.
Zhang won his second straight Suffolk diving championship, finishing the 11-dive competition with a score of 524.05. Hauppauge’s Sean Rorke was second with 500.6 and West Islip’s Kevin Nelson finished third with 494.0.
The state championship is March 6 at the Nassau Aquatic Center.
“He's a really hard worker and very committed,” Huntington/Harborfields coach Meg McConnell said. “He's been fighting a back injury but even after any mistakes he's able to pop up and keep going and he works to correct them.”
Mistakes haven’t been common for Zhang the last two seasons but McConnell believes that Zhang is in an even better place heading into the state championship than he was last year, when he finished 19th.
“I definitely feel he's been much more consistent on all of his dives,” McConnell said. “He had one dive that was pretty new last year and a few that were a little shaky. We have four weeks now before states so we're kind of toying with the idea of breaking out a new dive since we’d have the time. I think he's in a much better place overall.”
Besides Zhang, Rorke and Nelson, Kevin Kohlhoff of West Islip and Josh Sundararaman of Half Hollow Hills also qualified for the state championship.
“I’m happy that Alex qualified last year because going to states the first time is tough,” McConnell said. “I have no doubt in my mind that he will be top 20, if not top 16 or top 10. It’s all about focusing on each dive and once one is over moving on to the next one.”
Gene Morris joined Newsday's sports department in September 2012 and covers high school sports. He earned a journalism degree from Stony Brook University in 2010.
