Pitman freshman Natasha Sondeno dived in at the varsity level of the Sac-Joaquin Section finals competition on Saturday, and came away with a fourth place finish.

“Natasha ended up in fourth which was a huge accomplishment to do that as a freshman. She is the freshman phenomenon, she decided that she wanted to dive varsity because she wanted to push herself competitively to dive against the best,” Pitman diving coach Toby Stonelake said. “Natasha dove really well, she received an overall score that was better than what she got in trials, but it was not quite enough to overtake the power and experience of some of the divers from the northern part of the section.”

Also competing at Saturday's girls section finals, held at Johansen High in Modesto, was Turlock High's Alex Schoeffling. The Lady Bulldog placed 13 out of 16.

“She was competing against year round divers,” Turlock High girls swim coach Sonja Raynes said. “So she did very well overall especially since she also is part of the medley relay team.”

The Pitman boys also had two divers compete. Riley Silva and Alan Quinn finished fifth and seventh place for the boys, respectively. 

“It has been a joy to watch them grow and fine tune their skills on the diving boards and in the pool,” Stonelake said about Silva and Quinn. “When we found out that both of them had made top eight at trials then everything from here on was just for fun. I feel that they definitely did their best especially because they were competing against boys who dive year around, which Riley and Allan do not.

“With these awesome performances this past Saturday it helps get the rest of the Pitman boys and girls that will be swimming this coming weekend at Tokay High in Lodi for swimming trials and finals for sections. I mean to be in the top 16 in the whole section is huge accomplishment.”