North Penn’s Yacopino, Boland Bintner win at SOL Continental Diving
TOWAMENCIN >> For the third year in a row, the Suburban One League Continental Conference Diving Championships were colored Navy and Columbia blue.
Marie Yacopino earned her third consecutive gold medal on the girls side Wednesday night while the Knights’ Ian Boland Bintner emerged to the top of the boys competition, making it the third straight season that NP has taken home both the boys and girls conference golds.
Yacopino and Boland Bintner were so outstanding that each set a meet record — Yacopino broke her own record of a year ago by scoring a 556.60, and Boland Bintner’s score of 550.90 topped the previous record set by William Tennent great Ian Forlini.
“Ian Forlini’s a really, really good diver,” Boland Binter said of the 2014 state champ in Class AAA. “I never expected to get that high for an 11-dive meet. I was expecting maybe around 500 — I was hoping for 500. To get 550, that’s really cool.”
His reverse two and a half — on his eighth dive of the night — catapulted him towards a historic performance.
“I just learned it about a month ago,” said Boland Bintner, fourth last year as a sophomore. “I’ve been doing it every day at practice so I’m really happy with how that came out.”
Boland Bintner’s closest competition was teammate Bryce Hoch, who scored a 532.35, and Central Bucks South’s Nash Nickerson, who earned bronze with a 527.25.
“There were about four or five guys where any one of us could have taken first, second or third place,” Boland Bintner said. “They’re all really good divers.
“Going into districts, this makes me really confident, knowing I can get that high a score. So I’m really looking forward to it.”
Yacopino keeps setting a higher and higher standard at this event each year. As a sophomore, she set a record of 468.15, breaking it a year ago with a 511.50. She smashed that mark on Wednesday evening, compiling a 556.60 over 11 impressive dives.
“It’s good to know I’m improving and getter better each day,” the senior said. “My gainer has been really bad lately so I was working on it a lot this week and last week. And it wasn’t as great as I was hoping it would be, but it still was better than it’s been.
“I’m really looking forward (to districts). I still have a lot of work to do — some cleaning up to do with some of my dives — but I’m excited.”
After five rounds of diving, Yacopino was already running away with the title, having compiled a score of 254 even. Her closest competitors at that point were two of her North Penn teammates, as sophomore Rachel Fisher was off to a hot start, scoring 213.25 through five rounds, and Paige Burrell was right behind in third, with a 211.90.
Burrell would surge in the later rounds, earning silver with a 477, with Taylor Bennett of Quakertown grabbing the bronze with a 466.85, Fisher placing fourth, and another North Penn standout, Callie Smith, notching fifth with a 429.60.
North Penn took the top two spots on the boys side and four of the top five spots on the girls side.
“Very good actually,” Boland Bintner said of North Penn’s performance. “Marie, and basically all of the girls, did really well, and Matt (Krise, 8th) and Bryce did a good job too. And Evan (Meiers, 9th) had been struggling with some dives that I felt he really came through with tonight.”
