County divers busy making waves in CCS

The seven county girls tied the CCS high set last year, with M-A divers dominating the girls’ competition, placing four in the top 15. The Bears were led by Ava Jannink, who finished a career-best second place. She was joined by teammate Natalie Hargreaves (6th), Natalie Liu (7th) and Elizabeth Peterson (13th).

For Jannink, who will dive for Cornell University next, the runner-up finish was the culmination of a four-year run that saw her steadily move up the standings. As a freshman in 2023, she finished 15th. She was 11th as a sophomore in 2024 and she moved up to fifth in 2025 as a junior. Jannink closed out her M-A career not only with her highest finish, but her final score of 433.00 was also her career CCS best, eclipsing the 431.30 she posted last year as a junior.

Liu also moved up the standings year over year, finishing 12th in 2025 and moving up to seventh this season.

Carlmont’s Bela Orlova, who finished 10th, took the baton from Camille Ching, who finished sixth in both 2024 and 2025. Burlingame’s Skylar Reese was 11th and Nueva Schools’ Chloe Thiel was 15th.

On the boys’ side, Burlingame’s Jack Vaksman and Spencer Handelman finished in the top-5 for the second year in row, flip-flopping spots. Vaksman moved up from fifth last year to fourth this season, leap-frogging Handelman, who was fourth in 2025 and fifth in 2026. Nueva’s Rafael Popowitz finished sixth

CCS diving, as a whole, has gotten stronger over the last five years. In 2021, the boys’ competition had just seven divers in the final, the girls’ had 10. Fast forward to 2026 and there were 16 divers who qualified for the finals in both the boys’ and girls’ competitions.

While San Mateo County girls have been a fixture in the CCS finals the last five years, the county boys have seen even bigger growth. In 2021, 2022 and 2023, there was not a single county diver in the top 15. Over the last three CCS championships, there have been a combined 11.

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If you’ve followed this column long enough, you know there is a dire need for youth and high school sports officials. I think there is an expectation that you need to have some kind of experience, but that is the farthest thing from the truth. If you’re really serious about joining the officiating ranks, the organizations that run them are here to help.

If you’ve ever thought about becoming a basketball referee, the Silicon Valley Sports Officials Association is holding a two-day training camp June 26-28 at Menlo-Atherton High School. Not only does the camp provide classroom instruction, prospective officials also get out on the basketball court and serve as officials for Menlo-Atherton’s summer basketball tournament that is scheduled at the same time as the referee camp.

In addition to classroom and on-court work, campers are provided video analysis of their performance, are given the mechanics of being a basketball official and mentorships with experienced officials.

“Our goal as always been bigger than just a camp,” SVSOA president Paul Clay said in an email. “It’s about building a community where officials get better together, support each other and grow in confidence and opportunity.”

The deadline to register is Friday, May 15. Cost is $200. To register, you can go to svsoa.org and click the “camps & clinics” button. You can also search “SVSOA” on Instagram and LinkedIn.

And SVSOA doesn’t do just basketball. If you are interested in officiating other sports, check out the organization’s website.

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Norcal Crew continues its breakout season as the men’s U19 varsity eights was one of five Norcal boats to qualify out of the Southwest Regionals May 1-3 for the US Rowing Youth National Championships June 11-14 in Sarasota, Florida.

But the eights is the marquee event and Norcal’s team continues to raise the profile of the Redwood City-based club. The Nor Cal eights boat — comprised of coxswain Jasper Tam, stroke Henry Pecore, Liam Bai (7 seat), Alex Ochoa (6 seat), Henry Allison (5 seat), Peter Ward (4 seat), Thor Dakin (3 seat), Soren Phillips (2 seat) and Miles Sosnowski (bow) — captured the club’s first-ever Southwest Regional championship.

The championship race featured the top two teams in the region — No.1 Norcal and No.2 Marin. Norcal boys’ head coach John Kraitz said the race was neck and neck most of the way before Norcal pulled away in the last 300 meters to give the Norcal eights the title.

“The win represents one of the most significant regional results in program history and firmly establishes Norcal as a national contender heading into Youth Nationals,” Norcal Crew said in a press release.

But the U19 wasn’t only championship won by Norcal. The club also grabbed gold in the men’s inclusive double. the mixed doubles boat finished second, the U17 eights boat finished fourth, while the men’s 2v was fifth.

Nathan Mollat has been covering high school sports in San Mateo County for the San Mateo Daily Journal since 2001. He can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.