Divers place sixth in County

JAN 10, MARTIN LUTHER KING SWIM CENTER-

Blair placed sixth out of 20 high schools in the Montgomery County Diving Relay Championship. Seniors Pete and Tom Johnson, Ilene Arnsdorf and junior Elizabeth Finn represented Blair at the meet.

According to Tom Johnson, Blair's strategy was not to earn guaranteed points on easy dives, but to throw more challenging dives. "We did the hardest dives possible. Our dives were a lot harder than other teams," he said.

Pete Johnson earned an impressive four on his two-and-a-half somersault, and Tom Johnson completed an inward double, which had the highest degree of difficulty of any of Blair's dives.

After five dives, Blair was in third place behind Walter Johnson and Churchill high schools. The Johnsons and Arnsdorf threw more challenging dives after that point, so a dropoff in their scores reflected that challenge. However, the Blazers met their goal of not failing any dives, a feat which was has not been accomplished in recent history.

At the meet, which is scored by combining the scores of 11 dives by both boys and girls from each school, the Blazers were beat by Churchill, Walter Johnson, Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Blake and Magruder high schools. Blair beat four of six Division I teams, including Sherwood, Watkins Mill, Wootton and Whitman high schools.