Ocean View’s Welfringer leaves diving legacy

RIVERSIDE — Ocean View High senior Mikayla Welfringer posed for pictures with her medal Tuesday afternoon, after the CIF Southern Section Division 4 girls’ diving finals at Riverside City College.

Some of the pictures taken by her parents and Ocean View dive coach Sara Spilsbury were typical, with Welfringer standing poolside. But some of them also had her playfully jumping in the air.

“I try to make it as fun as it can be,” Welfringer said. “I kind of like it that way, because I’m not a very stressful person. I kind of like that Division 4 is a little bit more laid back. I was just trying to do my best, overall.”

With just three competitors on the girls’ side in Division 4, Welfringer was guaranteed a medal. She finished third, with 252.90 total points scored on her 11 dives. Maranatha’s Mya Tio won the meet with 352.40 points.

The other CIF Southern Section division to complete diving finals Tuesday was Division 1. Edison’s Spencer Nichols finished 11th on the boys’ side, with Gavin Hill of Marina in 13th place. Marina sophomore Jenna Nelson was 21st in the Division 1 girls’ meet.

Welfringer was happy with her performance Tuesday in her second CIF Division 4 meet and, ultimately, with her high school career. When she came in as a freshman, the Seahawks team had just four divers. Now, there are 16. They’re the only team in the Golden West League with divers.

“She’s always been just a super-positive aspect of our team, and really helped to create the family atmosphere that we have,” Spilsbury said. “Our kids all really care about each other and they really support each other. I think it’s one of the few sports on campus where there is no ‘me,’ it’s just all ‘us.’ We really build and bond that together, and I think she’s been instrumental in creating that at our school.”

Welfringer, who competed at CIF for the first time last year and placed fifth in Division 4, said she enjoyed the competition of being grouped with Division 1 on Tuesday. She is a club diver for HB Divers, founded by Kaeden Kraft, who is also the Marina High coach.

Welfringer is headed to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for college and said she’s unsure if she’ll try to walk on as a diver. This summer, she will be coaching for HB Divers.

And she’s happy with the legacy she is leaving behind at Ocean View. She’s just the second diver in Spilsbury’s tenure as coach to compete at CIF, joining Garrett Brown.

“I’m really excited to see how it grows and how I’m leaving it,” Welfringer said. “I’m really proud of the entire program.”

Marina’s Nelson was also proud of her performance Tuesday afternoon in her first CIF Division meet. She even made the first cut, as she was No. 22 after five dives, right above the cut line.

“It was exciting and a little nerve-wracking, because all of the people have been diving for a lot longer than I have,” said Nelson, who has been diving for less than two years. “But I enjoyed it; it was fun … I was actually really surprised. I didn’t know that they did cuts at CIF, so I was really happy that I made the first cut.”

One dive that Nelson was excited about was the “back somersault 1½ twist,” her dive with the highest degree of difficulty. She got three scores of 5.0 among the seven judges for the dive.

“It’s been a dive that I’ve been struggling with lately,” she said. “It was really exciting, because I did it right this time.”

Kraft, who also coaches Nelson with HB Divers, said he is excited for her potential in the sport.

“She’s just an awesome kid,” Kraft said. “She learns quickly, listens well. She’s got a lot of potential. A lot of these girls out here have been diving six, seven, eight years, and she’s keeping up with them at two years.

“I think it was a great experience for her. She was able to see how good some of these divers are, and I also think it gave her some confidence.”

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DIVISION 2

Laguna Beach High junior Liv Mitchell placed third in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 girls’ diving finals on Monday afternoon at Riverside City College.

It was the third top-three finish of Mitchell’s career at the meet. She placed first in Division 2 as a sophomore and was second place as a freshman.

Mitchell said in a phone interview that she was pretty happy with Monday’s result, especially considering she was battling a sinus infection and out of the water for a week prior to the meet.

“It happens,” she said. “I was pretty happy with the first half of my list, the first six or seven dives.”

Mitchell finished with 471.70 points. Katelynn Shaheen of Crescenta Valley won the meet with 478.45 points.

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