SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sophomores Piper Bates and Stella Cassidy finished with six-dive totals of 195.95 and 184.80, respectively, to lead a trio of St. Francis entrants in a high school diving dual meet at American River College Thursday.
Oddly, the meet was both a league and non-league event. Officially, it appeared on the schedule as a dual against Christian Brothers. However, it also counted as the 1-meter diving event toward the Troubadours' Sierra Foothill League swimming double-dual with Del Oro and Rocklin, neither of which fields divers, adding 13-0 scoring to Wednesday's team totals.
Additionally, the meet counted as a dual meet between CB and Ponderosa, but with the Bruins also not having divers, the Falcons also defaulted to a 13-0 head-to-head scoring advantage. Finally, Thursday's competition featured four other divers: three from Roseville schools plus former SF diver Rose Buffleben, current competing for Natomas Pacific Pathways Prep (a.k.a. NP3).
Bates came just shy of cracking the double-century mark for a third straight meet, but still finished second only to West Park's Rebekah Parent and her winning 232.00. Bates enjoyed her biggest scoring push in the third round, thanks to awards of 6.0-6.5-6.0 on her 403C (inward 1.5 somersaults, tuck position) for 38.50 points. She also added 37.00 in the second round on a 2-3C (back 1.5, tuck) and finished strong with 37.95 from a 5223D (back somersault with 1.5 twists).
Cassidy enjoyed her best score of the year, placing less than a point behind CB's Kathryn Littlejohn (185.75) for fourth place. She came through with 37.40 points on a 5132D (forward 1.5 with a twist) in the fifth round.
Meanwhile, SF freshman Sadie Favreau crushed her previous best with a 130.40 total, good for ninth place. Her highest scoring dive earned 30.60 points: a 201A (back dive straight) in the third round. Favreau's two previous meets totaled in the 80s, a plateau she had already surpassed by the fourth of the six rounds, marking a more than 40-point improvement of her personal record in the still-young 2026 rookie season.
In the direct SF-CB matchup, the Troubies finished in first (Bates), third (Cassidy) and fifth (Favreau) for 10 team points, with the Falcons claiming second (Littlejohn) and fourth (Claire Nichols) for six.
St. Francis returns to action after the school's two-week spring break with another SFL double dual on April 15, this time at Oak Ridge with Granite Bay.
