Rye Golf Club, Orienta divers take home top prize

Written by Mike Smith

Thursday, 29 July 2010 15:59

For nearly a century, the county’s best youth swimmers and divers have squared off against one another in an annual mid-summer classic to decide aquatic supremacy and bragging rights in the pool. This week, the 85th annual Westchester County Swimming and Diving Championships kicked off with the top local divers going head-to-head at the Sprain Ridge Park Pool in Yonkers. Not surprisingly, it was two well-known divers who took home top honors in the 14-17 age group, as Coco Darelius of the Rye Golf Club and Theo Bodor of the Orienta Beach Club placed first in the girls and boys division respectively.
Darelius, who finished third in last year’s championships, came into this year’s competition a year older and that much more confident that she would be among the top divers once again. She edged Larchmont’s Elena Poppas by three points to claim her first ever WSA title.

“I thought I would do well, “ said the Rye native. “I didn’t know if I was going to win, but I expected to do well.”

It has been a busy few weeks for Darelius as she established herself as Westchester’s top female diver just days after a solid performance at the Empire State Games, where she netted her two top-three finishes. According to Darelius, it was her preparation for the Games that had her at top form for the Westchester Meet.

“I’ve been training really hard for the Empire State Games over the past month or so, and I think it paid off here,” said the diver.

Darelius’ coach, Victor Byrnes, believes the biggest difference in her game has been her maturity.

“It’s all about her confidence,” he said. “”She has fun up there, but when it’s time to dive, she has her focus and she knows exactly what she’s going to do. Coming off her performance at the [Empire State] Games, we knew she was going to have success here.”

On the boys’ end, Theo Bodor didn’t quite have the lead-in to the Westchester championships that Darelius did. Sidelined by mononucleosis and various nagging injuries, Bodor hasn’t been able to train as much as he would have liked over the past few months, and had to miss Empires earlier this month. Still, his final score of 196.10 was enough to help him stand tallest among a talented crew of male divers.

“Even though I haven’t been able to train that much, I just came out here hoping to do the best that I could,” said the Mamaroneck standout. “It just happened to be enough to win.”

Both Darelius and Bodor will be officially awarded their medals next week as their swim clubs continue the battle for the Westchester County crown at the Playland Pool.

The four-day swim meet will commence at 3:30 on Monday afternoon and finish on Thursday.

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