2/20/2025
(Federal Way, WA) The 2A/1A State Swim and Diving Championships were held at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Diving Championships were all held on Thursday with swimming preliminiaries on Friday and swimming finals on Saturday.
This is our Diving coverage which is in the order they took place with 2A/1A in the morning, 3A afternoon and 4A in the evening. We’ll be adding the Swim coverage in another story after the competition has been completed.
2A/1A State Diving
Sehome junior Kaden Schmidt came in as the top qualifier and rolled to the Championship. Schmidt hit his peak in the 4th round with 41.8 and finsihed on top of the standings in the semi-finals which were the 1st 8 rounds with a big lead of 215.75 to Josiah Seals’ 178.5. Schmidt then scored and even 65 points in his final 3 dives to clinch the win with a total of 280.75 points.
Schmidt did not place in the top 8 last year but he followed his graduating teammate Jack Legan who won the title last year. Schmidt didn’t top Legan’s 305.75 but his score this year would have taken 2nd last season. Schmidt will take his swing at repeating next year.
Meantime, Seals a junior from Lindbergh jumped up from his 9th qualifying seed to get 2nd place. Seals did it with consistency scoring most of his dives in the 20’s. He scored 56.55 in his final 3 dives and that was enough to hold off Myles Ludwig of Bellingham by just 1.85 points.
Schmidt had run off with a big lead and the battles that remained were for the runner-ups. Aberdeen’s Micah Schroeder made a solid run to finish 4th. His teammate Zeke Olson who took 5th last year as a sophomore ended up 5th again. But Zeke only had 10 dives compared to everyone else as he was given a 0 on his 6th dive because he did the wrong dive. Olson nailed it too and would have needed only a 19 to take 2nd. The 5th place finish is quite incredible with one of your scores at 0.
Rounding out the top 8 medal winners were Nolan Witman of Squalicum in 6th, taking 7th was Grant Butterworth of Port Angeles and 8th place went to Luke Kelly of Steilaccom.
The top 16 all scored points for their overall team. The competition began with 20 divers and after 8 rounds 4 were cut from the competition. Here is the complete order of finish:
WIAA/Gesa Credit Union
1A/2A Boys State Swim and Dive Championships
Event 205 Boys 1 mtr Diving 2A
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Name Year School Semis Finals
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=== Finals ===
1 Schmidt, Kaden 11 SEH 215.75 280.75
2 Seals, Josiah 11 LIND 178.50 235.05
3 Ludwig, Myles 10 BELL 165.55 233.20
4 Schroeder, Micah 11 ABER 176.70 226.65
5 Olson, Zeke 11 ABER 160.40 214.95
6 Witman, Nolan 11 SQUAL 170.80 213.85
7 Butterworth, Grant C 11 PA 158.25 209.25
8 Kelly, Luke 12 STEIL 165.70 208.90
9 Lang, Ryan 11 STEIL 160.00 208.25
10 Peterson, William T 12 ANAC 140.50 203.15
11 Strong, Rydley 11 NK 143.70 202.00
12 Strong, Asher 9 NK 155.80 196.45
13 Witman, Alex 9 SQUAL 136.60 191.20
14 Lee, Jay 12 STEIL 131.20 176.30
15 Sargsyan, Edmond 9 NK 127.40 173.10
16 Root, Jack 11 PA 119.30 168.10
=== Semi-Finals ===
17 Hamilton, Jude 10 KINGS 113.05
18 Nicholson, Liam J 9 PA 112.45
19 Gonzalez-Pell, Aidan 12 BELL 100.40
20 Correll, Matthew 11 STEIL 82.10
Link to watch full 2A/1A State Diving Broadcast on the NFHS Network (subsription required)
Sehome’s Kaden Schmidt with the Dive of the Meet
Lindbergh’s Josiah Seals surges into 2nd place
Aberdeen’s Micah Schroeder remains in the mix
3A State Diving
Defending Champion Alma Smith of Cheney was back for his senior year to defend his title and would face brand new competition in the form of not one but two freshmen. Smith was the top qualifier with 470.55 points while Mercer Island’s freshman Connor Carson was 2nd at 441.25 and Everett’s freshman Tyler Simmons at 421.50, the only 3 above the 400 point mark.
This was no fluke as it would come down to the top 3 to sort out the top 3 finishes. Alma Smith was in control through the 1st 8 rounds leading with 310.45 a little more than 15 points in front of Carson while Simmons was further back with 264.35 but was 40 points in front of the rest of the pack.
It came down to the final 3 rounds with the critical dive in the 9th round. Carson dove before Smith and Simmons and after the 8th round cut down break Carson put up a huge 45 point dive. Both Smith and Simmons attempted high difficulty dives and both fell short each with their lowest point total of the 11 dives with Smith getting a 28.6 and Simmons an 18.
This left Simmons on a 3rd place island and ended up 73 points short of 2nd place and 40 points in front of 4th place in the final standings. Simmons finished with 360.65 and scored his highest dive in his final attempt of 46.8.
The battle for the Championship was down to two and Smith went from leading by 15 after 8 rounds to trailing by a little over a point after round 9. In their 10th dives Carson remained sharp hitting another 40+ point dive of 45.6 which would be his best dive of the meet. Smith followed up with a better effort but got 32.25 and going into the final dive now trailed by more than 14 points.
In the final round Carson went before Smith and nailed his 3rd straight 40 point dive finishing with a 42.9. Most would think this would ice the Championship no problem but Smith was going to take his best shot and stunned the crowd with a great finishing effort and could he get to 57.8 points to snatch his 2nd title?
The crowd was hushed waiting for the final score and Smith did post the meet’s highest score. But when 52 flashed it gave freshman Carson the Championship but unbelievably had to wait to see if his 57+ point lead would hold up. Smith would end up 2nd bookended by two great freshmen who have served notice to all 3A divers for the next 3 years.
Two others broke the 300 point mark as Timberline’s Aaron Blume was very solid posting 305.05 for 4th place and 5th place went to Gig Harbor’s James Ferrier who was in the tough lead-off position and just missed 4th place by a half point.
Matthew Brady of Liberty was 6th with Ashton Mazza of Bishop Blanchet 7th and taking the final medal was Zachary Ruckle of Peninsula in 8th place.
Enumclaw’s senior Riley Jensen was in great position to medal but on his 9th dive he hit the diving board with his chin and had to withdraw from the competition. Jensen was likely headed for some stitches but walked off and disappointed but ok. Jensen was in 8th place after 8 rounds before he had to leave.
The top 16 all scored points for their overall team. The competition began with 24 divers and after 5 rounds 4 were cut from the competition. 3 more rounds were held and then another 4 were cut after the 8th round. Here is the complete order of finish:
WIAA/Gesa Credit Union
3A Boys State Swim and Dive Championships
Event 305 Boys 1 mtr Diving
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Name Year School Semis Finals
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=== Finals ===
1 Carson, Connor 9 MI 295.35 428.85
2 Smith, Alma 12 CHEN 310.45 423.20
3 Simmons, Tyler 9 EV 264.35 360.65
4 Blume, Aaron 12 TLINE 213.55 305.05
5 Ferrier, James 11 GH 208.00 304.60
6 Brady, Matthew 12 LIB 224.90 295.75
7 Mazza, Ashton 11 BBLAN 199.95 276.85
8 Ruckle, Zachary 11 PEN 188.10 267.50
9 Faro, Isaiah 12 RR 173.80 251.10
10 Kornblum, Shane 11 MI 172.45 247.85
11 Carr, Blake 11 SAMM 167.95 238.40
12 Swan, Bear 12 SPREP 177.50 232.85
13 Nordberg, Rhett 12 SAMM 164.25 228.40
14 Caplinger, John 11 GH 170.65 223.15
15 Early, Andrew W 10 WW 167.45 209.00
-- Jensen, Riley 12 ENUM 196.30 DQ
=== Semi-Finals ===
17 Harris, Sam 10 GH 159.75
18 Mora Larentis, Nicco 10 GAR 158.75
19 Rosemond, Logan 10 INGLE 157.85
20 Merrill, Cody J 11 WW 151.80
Link to watch full 2A/1A State Diving Broadcast on the NFHS Network (subsription required)
Mercer Island’s Connor Carson puts on the pressure
Cheney’s Alma Smith finishes with a burst
Tyler Simmons shuts the door on 3rd place
4A State Diving
Mount Rainier’s Landon Griffith took 3rd last year as a junior nearly 100 points behind his then teammate senior Corwin Lindeman who won the 4A diving title by 80 points over senior Cole McIntire of Redmond.
So do the math right? Easy win for Landon with the 2 seniors graduated from last year. But in competition it’s rarely that simple as we saw in the 3A and a freshman jumps up to beat the defending Champ. But in this case, the math stood up as Griffith rolled to the Championship outscoring his teammate last year with 455.50. 62 points in front of 2nd place and added more than 100 points to his last years total.
Griffith also took a shot at the All Time Top 10 scores falling 15.2 points short. Griffith needed just shy of 150 points in his final 3 dives and came up with 133.45. Griffith had 3 dives of more than 50 points. His 2nd dive was 51.7, 5th dive 50.6 and tied his 51.7 in the 10th round.
The race was for 2nd ended up a 2-way battle between Karter Warner of South Kitsap and Makar Shnitko of Eastlake. Shnitko trailed Warner by 9 points at the 8 round break and in round 9 scored a 31.5 to Warner’s 26.25 pull within 4. The two divers would then virtually deadheat for their final 2 dives with each hitting 33 and change and 39 and change and Warner took 2nd by less than 4 points.
The battle for 2nd was a 5 man race until Warner and Shnitko pulled away. Maxx Reagan and Wyatt Stanley both of Tahoma along with Eric Chen from Newport were all in the running.
Stanley was the first to bow out and in a totally unfortunate way. Stanley was in the heat of the battle as he entered his 10th dive. Stanley nailed it and was going to be a good score but he did the wrong dive as scheduled and ended up with a 0. So not only was his chance at a top 5 finish gone but a 0 score and medaling at all was unlikely.
Stanley didn’t pout, he didn’t give up he went out and hit a solid final dive scoring 34.65 and ended up finishing 7th. That left 4th place between Reagan and Chen. Chen trailed Reagan after 8 rounds by 3.25 points. They dualed through the final 3 rounds and Chen diving before Reagan put on the pressure with a 33.75 in his final dive.
Reagan responded with a 35.70 to take 4th place by 2.75 points. Cade Farmer of Kamiak was super consistent and finished 6th with 340.15 points. Stanley was next at 332.25. So quick math says a 34 point dive instead of 0-points would have given him 4th place. He averaged 33.24 points through the 10 dives so certainly not out of the question.
Hazen’s Trevor Sooy another under the radar diver was also very consistent and battled hard ended up with the 8th place and final medal of the night.
The top 16 all scored points for their overall team. The competition began with 23 divers and after 5 rounds 3 were cut from the competition. 3 more rounds were held and then another 4 were cut after the 8th round. Here is the complete order of finish:
WIAA/Gesa Credit Union
4A Boys State Swim and Dive Championships
Event 405 Men 1 mtr Diving
===============================================================================
Name Year School
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1 Griffith, Landon 12 MR 455.50
2 Warner, Karter 12 SK 393.10
3 Shnitko, Makar 11 EASTL 389.25
4 Reagan, Maxx 12 TAH 365.65
5 Chen, Eric M 11 NEW 362.90
6 Farmer, Cade 12 KAM 340.15
7 Stanley, Wyatt 12 TAH 332.35
8 Sooy, Trevor 11 HAZ 321.00
9 Hansford, Sean 11 KC 317.20
10 Hamilton, Hudson 12 EAST 304.05
11 Campbell, Nate 12 CURT 295.35
12 Wilson, Ronan 12 SK 286.70
13 Williams, Porter 10 RICH 279.90
14 Kleindl, Hunter 12 ROG 279.20
15 Schmidt, Ethan 11 CURT 258.60
16 Lundeen, Koen 12 KAM 258.45
17 Valencia-Tomas, Ricardo 10 BOTH 256.50
18 Sather, Markus 11 JUAN 251.60
19 Rolon, Luca 12 HAN 243.60
20 Drummond, Jo 12 JUAN 239.95
21 Quilici, Rocco 11 KC 239.85
22 McLaughlin, Bryce 11 GPHS 238.00
23 Winter-Russell, Jacob 12 EAST 222.35
Link to watch full 2A/1A State Diving Broadcast on the NFHS Network (subsription required)
Mount Rainier’s Landon Griffith takes a shot at top 10 all-time scores
South Kitsap’s Karter Warner moves into 2nd place just before the break
Tahoma’s Maxx Reagan secures 3rd place with final dive
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2A/1A Photo Gallery
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4A Photo Gallery
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