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Caden Diehl Finishes Second at CIF-SS Diving Finals
The legacy of high-quality diving continued for Dana Hills in the CIF-SS Division 2 Diving Finals on Wednesday, April 26, at Riverside Community College
Dana Hills junior Caden Diehl nailed his two highest-scoring dives in his final three attempts to take runner-up silver with a total of 435.95 points in Division 2 to mark the third straight CIF-SS podium finish for a Dolphin boys diver.
If Diehl finished in the top 12 scores overall regardless of division after the Division 1 and 4 Finals on Thursday, April 27, the junior diver would advance to the CIF State Qualifier on Tuesday, May 2. Diehl currently has the second-highest total after the Division 2 and 3 Finals.
Diehl, who finished eighth in last year’s Division 1 Final and seventh as a freshman in Division 2, started the competition strong with the highest scoring dive of the first round with a 37.20 on a forward 2½-somersault pike.
On his ninth of 11 dives, Diehl took the round again with a score of 49.99 on a reverse 2½-somersault tuck. Diehl posted his highest score on his final dive with a 49.95 on an inward 2½-somersault tuck.
Diehl finished second in six of the 11 rounds, including that final round, and third in three rounds.
The CIF-SS Swimming Championships begin with Division 1 and 2 preliminaries on Wednesday, May 3, with the Finals on Friday, May 5, all at Riverside Community College.
Baseball Sets Up Win-and-In League Finale Friday
Going into the final week of the season, Dana Hills needed a sweep of third-place Trabuco Hills to surge into the third and final automatic playoff spot in the South Coast League.
The Dolphins did their job on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 25 and 26, to set up a winner-take-all, regular-season finale on Friday, April 28.
Dana Hills (10-17, 5-6) defeated Trabuco Hills (13-14, 5-6) by a 6-1 score on both Tuesday and Wednesday, and the Dolphins will host the Mustangs on Friday with everything to play for. Both teams enter Friday’s finale with losing records, meaning they both need to win to advance to the CIF-SS playoffs, as teams with sub-.500 records are ineligible for at-large selections.
Look for live coverage of Friday’s game on the South OC Sports Twitter and Instagram feeds and postgame coverage at danapointtimes.com.
In Tuesday’s win, Dana Hills was led by a stellar combined hitting performance from the Rodgers brothers. Chase Rodgers was 3-for-4 with two doubles, two RBI and a run scored, and Devin Rodgers also was 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. On the mound, Ben Moulin secured the win by allowing one run in 4 1/3 innings, and Andrew Nesson struck out four in 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.
On Wednesday, Devin Rodgers drove in two runs on a 1-for-3 afternoon, as did Sterling Rapp, who also went 1-for-3 with two RBI. Andrew Szkiba was 3-for-4 with a run scored. Grady Faris and Kade Murray each drove in a run with a double. Jack Gallison earned the win on the mound with four scoreless innings highlighted by four strikeouts.
Elsewhere in the South Coast League, Tesoro and Capistrano Valley entered the week tied atop the standings, but Tesoro took the first two games of a three-game set against the Cougars to secure the league championship.
CIF-SS playoff brackets for baseball will be released on Monday, May 1, at 10 a.m.
Girls Lacrosse Wins First League Championship
Since its inception in 2008, the Dana Hills girls lacrosse program had never posted a winning record in league or overall. In 2009, the Dolphins were 5-5 in the South Coast League, and in 2012, Dana Hills went 8-10.
Those were the highwater marks for the program—until this week.
Dana Hills avenged two losses to then-league-leading Tesoro, 7-5, on Monday, April 24, to ensure the program’s first-ever winning record, and then the Dolphins finished the job against Mission Viejo, 15-10, on Tuesday, April 25, to capture their first-ever Sea View League championship.
Dana Hills (10-6, 7-2) advances to its first CIF-SS playoffs next week. The Dolphins will find out their Division 3 draw when the brackets are released on Saturday, April 29, at 11 a.m.
Tesoro (7-12, 6-3) beat Dana Hills by nine goals on March 28 and by four goals on April 13, but the Dolphins swept every other team in the Sea View League for the opportunity to push ahead of Tesoro on Monday.
Dana Hills got four goals from senior Erica Smith and one goal each from seniors Rebecca Hopkins, Francesca Rodriguez and Alexandra Freedberg.
On Tuesday, Smith scored six goals to lead the Dolphins over Mission Viejo. Eight different Dana Hills players scored against the Diablos, including two-goal days for Hopkins and senior Jordan Anderson. Sophomore Avery Smith made eight saves in net.
Boys Volleyball Hosts First CIF-SS Playoff Match in Four Years
For the first time since 2019, the Dana Hills boys volleyball team was back in the CIF-SS playoffs and hosted a playoff match on Thursday, April 27.
Dana Hills hosted wild-card winner El Rancho of Pico Rivera in the first round of the Division 4 playoffs on Thursday, but results were not available at press time.
If Dana Hills advanced, the Dolphins would either host Valle Vista league champions Diamond Ranch of Pomona or travel to Oxford Academy of Cypress for the second round on Saturday, April 29. The Division 4 quarterfinals are set for Wednesday, May 3.
Dana Hills (21-13, 6-3) finished second in the Sea View League in the first season under head coach Spencer Andrews after going winless in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons. The Dolphins snapped a 28-match losing streak earlier this season.
CIF-SS Playoff Brackets
The spring sports playoffs in CIF-SS will open in earnest next week, with the rest of the team sports brackets being released over the weekend.
On Saturday, April 29, softball brackets will go out at 10 a.m., and the boys and girls lacrosse brackets will go live at 11 a.m. On Monday May 1, in addition to baseball being released at 10 a.m., the boys tennis bracket will be published at 11 a.m.
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