Hailey Hernandez, Lyle Yost Named NISCA National High School Diving Champions

The 2019 National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association (NISCA) has announced its 2019 boys’ and girls’ All-American divers.

100 boys and 100 girls were named to the 2018-2019 All-America teams. The headliners are sophomore Hailey Hernandez from Southlake Carroll High School in Texas and Lyle Yost from Shaker Heights High School in Ohio, who were declared the NISCA National Champions.

Hernandez successfully defended her Texas 6A State Title as a sophomore as part of the Dragons’ run to a state championship in Texas’ top division. This was actually the 2nd-straight season in which Soutlake Carroll went 1-2 at that meet, with Hernandez scoring 540.40 to win and her junior teammate Bridget O’Neil scoring 525.70 for 2nd. The two were both more than 80 points ahead of their next-closest competitor.

O’Neil, in fact, didn’t earn All-America honors this year, but 2 more of her teammates – Allison Ward and Summer Westover – did, giving the school 3 on the list.

Yost, a senior, won the Ohio State High School title in Division I with a score of 571.20. That made him the first back-to-back-to-back Ohio High School Division I Boys Diving State Champion since 1961. He’ll be attending Ohio State in the fall.

Diving, because the scoring is more subjective than swimming, relies more heavily on video review by qualified scorers to make up their lists. Divers, their parents, or their high school diving/swimming coach must submit a form to be eligible. Boys must score a minimum of 375 points and have a degree of difficulty of optional dives of 13.3 or higher, while girls must also score a minimum of 375 points with a degree of difficulty of optional dives of 13.0 or higher. The minimum score is waived if a diver finishes in the top 8 of their respective state meet, so long as they still meet the degree of difficulty requirement. Applicants must submit a DVD and a fee to be considered.

The deadline for applications for the swimming, water polo, academic, and scholar team programs is June 15th at midnight Eastern Daylight Savings Time, and the lists will be posted in mid July.

Diving Summary Data:

• Michigan led the way in boys’ diving with 11 selections, followed by Texas with 10.

Boys’ breakdown, by state:

• California led all girls’ contenders with 13 All-Americans, followed by 12 in Texas, and 10 each in Michigan and Ohio.

Girls’ Breakdown, by State

• While the 3 girls and 1 boy to make the list from Southlake Carroll makes for an impressive 4 All-Americans, they were outdone by North Penn High School, which had 4 girls (Paige Burrell, Madalyn Freece, Meghan Wenzel, and Kianna Yancey) and 1 boy (Evan Meiers) make the list.
• In total, 165 high schools were represented by the 200 divers. 25 schools had multiple qualifiers, led by North Penn with 5, and Archbishop Mitty and Southlake Carroll with 4 each.

Breakout by Class

Boys

• Freshmen – 14
• Sophomores – 22
• Juniors – 23
• Seniors – 41

Girls

• Freshmen – 10
• Sophomores – 18
• Juniors – 28
• Seniors – 44