Three of Los Alamitos High School’s five Divers made it to the Final Round at Thursday’s CIF Southern Section Division 1 Finals.
Junior, Sydney Czaus, earned 6th place in the girls’ final. Sophomore, Adam Payne, came in 10th and sophomore, Neil Jauhal, earned 14th place in the boys final. Twelve of the CIF Southern Section’s top Divers move on to the CIF Southern Section Master’s Competition Tuesday, May 18 at Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach.
Sydney Czaus is currently the first alternate for the girls event.
In 2009, Czaus came in third at the Master’s Competition. Being first alternate is disappointing after a very emotional week in which Czaus was left off the Division I competition list due to a computer error.
When the CIF SS Division I competitor list was published, Los Alamitos’ top two divers were missing. School and CIF Officials were at a loss as to why the divers hadn’t been entered.
With the help of dive officials and coaches from all over CIF SS, the Los Al divers and Coach Shane Butler were able to document the entries. CIF Southern Section Commissioner, Dr. James Staunton completed an extensive review of the documents showing that the entry timeline had been met even though the official school entry was never received at the CIF SS office.
Divers Sydney Czaus and Adam Payne were allowed to compete in the CIF SS Division I Diving Championships. The emotion of the week took a toll on the divers’ performance leaving Czaus on the alternate list for CIF SS Masters.
Currently, diving entries in CIF SS Division Championships actually require three entries – an online official school entry in Direct Athletics a fax entry from the school and an online entry in DiveMeets.com from the diver.
Los Al Coach, Shane Butler entered the divers into Direct Athletics on Thursday night May 6th following Czaus’ easy win at the Sunset League Finals.
At the time, he contacted another team’s coach to determine if the redundant fax entry was still needed. The other coach confirmed that she only does the online entry. Coach Butler received no indication that the entries hadn’t come through and didn’t specifically request the system to send separate confirmation.
The students had already entered their dive sheets online with DiveMeets.com. It was a shock to everyone to find that the school’s top scoring divers were the only two not on the CIF Seed List.
At first, CIF and Los Alamitos High School Officials said that nothing could be done. The deadline was missed and that was the end of the discussion. A computer expert from a Division II school helped the Los Al Divers find the time stamp on Coach Butler’s computer proving that he had indeed been on the Direct Athletics site completing entries well before the deadline. Commissioner Staunton reviewed the evidence and determined that the divers had met the entry requirements.
All week, swimmers and divers have shared similar stories about challenges with some entries and not others. This situation is leading to a review of the process by CIF and Diving Officials to determine how to streamline the process in the future to avoid similar problems in the future.
