STOCKTON, Calif. – Junior Sinclair Yadao and sophomore Paige Vicente each advanced to the final 16 participants in the Sac-Joaquin Section 1-meter diving championships, hosted by St. Mary's High School at the Cortopassi Aquatics Center Friday. Yadao finished in fifth place with 373.80 points, while Vicente followed in eighth with 345.45

The top 16 finishers in the varsity competition score points toward their respective team scoring in the overall CIF-SJS swimming & diving championships, held on Wednesday and Friday at the Elk Grove Aquatic Center. The two Troubadours account for 25 team points.

Also representing St. Francis varsity was senior Jaiden Jackson, who finished 24th in her prep career finale. She scored 112.40 points overall, missing the semifinal cut by less than three points. The field began with 36 entrants, then reduced to the top 20 after five dives. Another four divers were eliminated after the eighth round, leaving the 16 scoring finishers for three final dives.

The top two Troubies switched relative places compared to the preliminary rounds, with Vicente holding sixth place at 179.95 to Yadao's ninth-place 162.35. Vicente's start was highlighted by a 46.20-point push on her second dive, a 403C (inward 1.5 somersault tuck). Meanwhile, Yadao had a relatively slow start by her standards, failing to score 30 points on three of those first five dives.

Yadao later hit a solid 203B (back 1/5 somersault pike) to the tune of 44.85 points in the seventh round to move ahead of Davis' Violet Watts in the standings. She stood in eighth place (262.30) at the cut to 16, while Vicente held steady in sixth with 275.70, not even two points shy of Folsom's Mimi Poort (277.20). Yadao then finished on a strong note, piling up more than 83 points in her final two dives, a 5132D (forward 1.5 somersault twist free) and 5223D (back somersault 1.5 twist free). That surged her ahead in the final standings, although well behind the advancing top four.

The San Joaquin half of the Sac-Joaquin Section dominated the varsity meet, with Keira Chandler of Mountain House (453.64) and defending champion Savanna Berry of Lodi (447.35) claiming the top two spots, followed by Ripon's Brooklyn Goeckeritz (426.00) and St. Mary's Riley Lee (410.90).

Poort ended up in sixth (369.20), just behind Yadao, with Christian Brothers' Phifey Boyers in seventh (349.05). Besides Chandler, the other SJS Division II divers were Granite Bay's Kaylee Hurley (13th, 287.85) and Rio Americano's Mackenzie Kopple (14th, 282.10).

Thus, the four leaders in next week's D-II SJS swim championships are St. Francis (25), Mountain House (20), Granite Bay (4) and Rio Americano (3).

Prior to the varsity 1-meter was the junior varsity competition, in which St. Francis had sixth-place Maya Hamilton (255.85) and seventh-place Farah Fox (244.85). Rio Americano's Lauren Stevenson won the JV event with 317.75, edging Roseville's Claire Sheidenberger (314.45).

The section championship concludes a St. Francis diving season in which four Troubies scored points toward the overall Delta League championship. In fact, the foursome of Yadao, Vicente, Jackson and Hamilton provided a 19-point lead on Davis for the league title. St. Francis ended up winning its first championship in eight years by exactly that margin: 619-600.