FAIR OAKS, Calif. – Sophomore Piper Bates won the varsity girls' 1-meter board with a total of 404.40 points, with teammate Stella Cassidy close behind in second place at 381.15, while freshman Sadie Favreau placed third in the junior varsity division with a 159.60 total, as all three St. Francis entrants picked up medals for their finishes at the Bronco-Troubie Invitational diving meet at Bella Vista Saturday.
Saturday's meet provides an opportunity for divers to compete in the 11-dive championship format, as opposed to the six-dive dual contested throughout the regular season. As such, competitors from Oakmont, Rosevill, Yuba City, Christian Brothers, Del Campo and NP3 Charter joined the field alongside co-hosts BV and St. Francis. Organizers plan to make the meet an annual event on the calendar, replacing the JHS-SF Invite that former coach Dede Crayne hosted at her Capital Divers site in previous years.
Bates, Cassidy and Favreau each earned medals for their finishes, while Bates and Favreau also garnered an unusual honor: the highest point totals from the judging panel before including the degree of difficulty multiplier, thus rewarding execution for dives.
Both Bates and Cassidy notched their highest-scoring dives in the second round. Bates received four 8.0s and a 7.0 for her 403C, or inward 1.5 somersault, tuck position. That landed her 52.80 total points, not long after Cassidy reaped 47.15 points for her 104B (forward 2.0, pike). They were the only two divers in the entire field to score 40-plus points on any dive. Bates added 41.00 ticks for her 203C (back 1.5, tuck) on her seventh dive, the same round in which Cassidy popped a 41.80 on a 403C (inward 1.5, tuck).
Bates easily surpassed her previous 11-dive best of 315.65, set at last year's Sierra Foothill League championships. She also exceeded the 375-point threshold for NISCA All-America status, although her total DD of 12.4 falls just shy of the award program's 13.0 minimum. Still, only one diver broke the 400-point barrier at last year's league meet (Oak Ridge's Mimi Poort), and only two of the four state qualifiers did so at the 2025 Sac-Joaquin Section championship (Poort and champion Keira Chandler of Mountain House).
Meanwhile, Favreau finished about 15 points ahead of Christian Brothers' Amelie Kaufman (144.25) for the bronze medal, with Oakmont's Allyson Paetz (259.80) and Yuba City's Ellie Lopez (226.35) leading the JV field. Favreau compiled her 159.60 despite missing three of her 11 dives, a credit to how well she executed her made dives. She enjoyed her largest scoring bump in the sixth round, with her 201A (back dive, straight) earning 6.5-7.0-7.0-7.5-6.5 for 34.85 points.
The Troubies enter the postseason portion of the schedule, with only 11-dive championship meets remaining. St. Francis returns to action on Tuesday for the SFL championships, hosted by Whitney at 10:30 a.m.
