Junior World Diving Championships
Matthews hopes to make splash in Malaysia
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Getzville's Casey Matthews will make her first appearance at the FINA World Junior Diving Championships. The event will be held Aug. 23-27 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Matthews will compete in 3-meter. File Photo

Wings diver Casey Matthews doesn't know much about Malaysia but she has a week to research.

That's because Matthews, a junior this fall at Williamsville North, took silver in the 16-18 girls 3-meter age group at the 2006 US Speedo Junior National Diving Competition July 26-30 in Indianapolis, Ind. to qualify her for the 16th FINA World Junior Diving Championships. The event will be held Aug. 23-27 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sixteen divers from USA Diving have been invited. Besides New York City's Linus Altman Kurosaki (16-18 boys 3-meter, platform) Matthews is the only diver from New York who advanced. Four other divers hail from California and another two come from Florida and Maryland.

Matthews, who turns 16 on Aug. 20, is thrilled to be going.

"It was a huge accomplishment," she said. "When I got second, it was the best I've ever dove in my life."

Matthews dove a personal USA Diving high score of 417.45 in the finals. Her previous high was 382.56 in the 14-15 girls 3-meter at the 2005 Speedo Junior Nationals. This year, she was eighth after her first five preliminary dives and in finals, used a front 21/2-pike, back 21/2-tuck, reverse 21/2 tuck and inward 21/2 tuck dive for consistent scores of 7.5.

"It was the same dives as last year. This year I was just in the zone," said Matthews. "After I hit my first two dives, I knew I could hit the last ones."

"I was (also) a lot more focused because I'm in a new age group this year and really wanted to achieve my goals," Matthews added. "This is one of them so it was really cool."

"It was unbelievable," said Wings Diving coach Karla Helder, who is also University at Buffalo's men's and women's diving coach. "To see her rise to the occasion and do the dives I see her do in practice all of the time and finally put it together in a competitive situation was absolutely thrilling."

Helder added that Matthews' dive degree difficulty of 2.6-2.7 greatly helped her score.

Joining Matthews on Team USA in the 16-18 girls 3-meter is Abby Johnston of Columbus Ohio, who won gold at Speedo Junior Nationals with a score of 435.65. Johnston took silver at last year's Speedo Junior Nationals. The top two finishers advance to junior worlds.

Matthews also made finals in the 1-meter but finished 12th (336.90). She was 11th in prelims (323.05).

Matthews will train at the Amherst Pepsi Center until Thursday before heading to Eastern Michigan University for five days to work with Thea Vock, a standout diver from Michigan and her coach, Loren "Buck" Smith. Matthews meets the rest of the USA diving team in San Francisco, Calif. on Aug. 16 before the team leaves for Malaysia the next day.

"I just can't wait to be there," said Matthews, who won a New York State diving title in 2004. "I'm going to be competing with 34 other countries so I'll get to see some amazing diving. It's going to be such an experience to actually get to dive with them, to know you're that good because this never happens."

"This is a milestone for Wings Diving," added Helder. "We've got somebody who's highly competitive who has broken through the circuit and established herself on the elite level. It's exciting not only for the club but Casey as well."

Matthews is not the only member from Wings Diving who is busy this month. Nathan Geary of Lancaster and Josh Loucks of Cheektowaga qualified for the 2006 AAU Diving National Championships held through Sunday in Mission Viejo, Calif. Geary and Loucke will compete in 16-18 boys 1and 3-meter; Geary will also perform platform. Helder said unlike Matthews, Geary and Loucks qualified by attaining a point standard during the high school season. Matthews, Geary and Loucks train three to five days per week at the UB pool, Wings' home facility.

Helder will be competing in 1and 3-meter at the XI FINA World Masters Championship Aug. 12-14 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

Wings Diving is a year-round program designed to help divers learn proper fundamentals and techniques. They offer competitive diving and lessons.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com